The Federation of International Cricketers’ Association (FICA) has sought the confirmation of news which states that Bangladesh team will be touring Pakistan (three ODIs’ and two Twenty20s) in December this year.
This was revealed by the FICA chief, Tim May. “I have requested confirmation from ICC as to the report’s accuracy. Until then it is not appropriate for us to comment”, he said.
“Any opinion on whether it is safe to tour Pakistan should be decided by independent security consultants,” he further added.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) will buy the bullet proof buses for the security of visiting teams in their country. However, it is not clear whether these buses would be “ready” by the time when any of the teams from Bangladesh, West Indies, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, whom the PCB have been negotiating, will travel to Pakistan.
“It is a news to us. We wonder how the PCB could announce the tour without the consent of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), the two petitioners, Kamal Hossain Miazi and Khandiker Dider-us-Salam, speaking exclusively, said from Dhaka. They appealed in the High Court in April when the tour was ultimately called off.
“Our petition is still pending in the court, though there is no restriction, but we will again discuss the issue with the concerned people and our lawyer and if we consider Pakistan is still unsafe, we shall freshly file the case in the court”, they added.
“It is not that we oppose the tour. We are also aware about the fact that the few international cricketers also played two Twenty20 charity matches in Karachi last week”.
“We shall wait until the ICC clearance for the tour”, they maintained.
“The BCB has already submitted the detailed security plan in Court. It’s a huge document. If the proposed tour is going to take place in December, then we will try to get the case fixed for final hearing before that”, the Petitioners’ lawyer, Hassan Azim said.
“Well, now it’s time that the security plan of Pakistan be tested in our apex Court. If the Court gives a clearance after hearing all the parties, then it will indeed be a very big achievement for Pakistan”, the lawyer concluded.
