England players can skip Bangladesh tour over terror fears with places secure
England’s cricketers will be given the option to miss the Bangladesh leg of the winter tour without jeopardising their place in the team. They are due to fly to Bangladesh on 30 September for three one-day internationals and two Test matches
This article titled “England players can skip Bangladesh tour over terror fears with places secure” was written by Ali Martin, for The Guardian on Friday 12th August 2016 16.31 UTCEngland’s cricketers will be given the option to miss the Bangladesh leg of the winter tour without jeopardising their place in the team, should the trip be given the all-clear to go ahead by the team’s security director, Reg Dickason.
Dickason and John Carr, the England and Wales Cricket Board’s director of cricket operations, are on the subcontinent preparing for the pre-Christmas tours of Bangladesh and India and will assess whether, in light of the July terrorist attack in Dhaka that resulted in 29 deaths, it is safe for the team to travel to the former.
England are due to fly to Bangladesh on 30 September for three one-day internationals and two Test matches and it is understood that, should the tour be given the green light, any player or member of the support staff who decided not to travel would not be penalised.
The tour has been a concern among the squad ever since Australia cancelled their senior team’s tour to Bangladesh last October for security reasons and then went on to withdraw their side from the Under-19s World Cup in the country at the start of this year.
The security situation has worsened since then, with both the deadly siege at the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe in the Gulshan district of Dhaka on 1 July, in which 20 hostages died, and the foiling of a second terrorist plot in the city later that month when nine militants were killed by security forces to prevent what the national police chief AKM Shahidul Hoque described as a “major attack”.
Speaking after the Gulshan attack, Eoin Morgan, the England one-day captain, said: “It is quite a big concern. We’ve always left the big decisions to the ECB. They write reports and send guys out to see if it is safe and then come back to the players to see how happy or unhappy they are. Certainly it is a concern at the moment.”
The ECB has maintained it will follow the guidance of both their longstanding security chief, Dickason, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, whose current advice to travellers is to “minimise exposure” to areas where westerners are known to gather.
A spokesperson said on Friday: “The safety and security of our players and management is always of paramount importance and this will continue to apply to all teams representing England on overseas tours and attending training camps.”
“The ECB’s security advisor Reg Dickason and Director – England cricket operations John Carr are currently completing a pre-tour inspection in Bangladesh. As we have said before, once we have received and evaluated their report, we will discuss it fully with the England players.”
Cricket matches have not been targeted in the country to date but the England head coach, Trevor Bayliss, and his assistant, Paul Farbrace, have first-hand experience of terrorism on the subcontinent. Both were on the Sri Lanka team bus in 2009 that was shot at by gunmen before a Test with Pakistan at the Gadaffi Stadium in Lahore, an incident that resulted in six players being injured and the deaths of six policemen and two civilians.
Since then Pakistan have, bar the visit of Zimbabwe for three one-day internationals in May last year, played their home fixtures in the United Arab Emirates. However, the Bangladesh Cricket Board has already ruled out holding the England tour at a neutral venue.
England are not due to play any warm-up fixtures in India before their five-Test series, which starts in Rajkot on 9 November, but it is understood a plan is in place to travel to the country early for at least two matches should the Bangladesh tour be cancelled.
Were the tour to go ahead and players do decide to opt out on personal grounds, it would not be a first. Andy Caddick and Robert Croft chose not to travel for the 2001-02 tour of India following the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington. While Caddick resumed his international career the following year in New Zealand, Croft did not win another cap.
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