Australia look to visit Bangladesh in 2017 to revive postponed tour

Dhaka, April 28।  Australia are keen to visit Bangladesh next year for their two-Test tour which was postponed in 2015 on security concerns.Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and Cricket Australia (CA) are considering July and September for the series, subject to security clearances, reports bdnews24.com.

"We've had discussions offline with the Bangladesh Cricket Board. They know and understand that we're absolutely committed to playing that (postponed) tour, obviously subject to security matters that we need to go through in preparation for that tour," CA's chief executive James Sutherland said on Wednedsay.

"But we're very much looking forward to getting back to Bangladesh and playing cricket over there."

BCB's chief executive Nizam Uddin Chowdhury said on Wednesday, "We've had words with Cricket Australia. We're in the last stages of finalising the Australia tour for next year."

"Apart from that we are also trying to finalise all our series with Australia until 2023 in the FTP (Future Tours Program)."

The BCB and CA are looking to hold back-to-back series in 2017.

Both teams will be playing in the Champions Trophy in England in June next year. Bangladesh are then scheduled to play two Tests, three One-Days and a one-off T20 in a home series against Pakistan in July.

In August, Bangaldesh are supposed to tour Australia for two Tests and three One-Days before travelling to South Africa in October.Australia, on the other hand, have no series scheduled from June to October. So, the Aussies are likely to visit Bangladesh before or after their home series against Bangladesh.

The Australians were scheduled to tour Bangladesh in September last year. But 48 hours before the squad was due to fly in, CA announced that the departure had been delayed "due to concerns about the safety and security of the Australian Test team".

Following the information gleaned from Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, CA postponed the tour a week later.

Agency