Dawson defies advice to make BPL dash

England one-day allrounder Liam Dawson has signed up at the last minute for Rangpur Riders in the Bangladesh Premier League.

He becomes the latest English player to reject advice from the Professional Cricketers Association not to take part in the tournament for security reasons.

Dawson, unused on England's ODI tour of Bangladesh, will travel to Dhaka later this week and will remain for the entire tournament.

The Rangpur franchise is coached by former Bangladesh batsman Javed Omar and captained by Shahid Afridi, who featured alongside Dawson for Hampshire in the 2016 NatWest T20 Blast.

England's tour of Bangladesh went ahead only after detailed security arrangements were put in place following a terrorist attack on a Dhaka cafe frequented by Westerners in July.

That led the PCA's chief executive David Leatherdale to advise all English cricketers to stay away from the BPL, which runs from November 4 until December 9, because the same levels of security could not be promised for a Twenty20 domestic competition.

Dawson joins former England players Ravi Bopara and Samit Patel, among others, in accepting security assurances from the Bangladesh Cricket Board.

"It's going to be a good challenge," Dawson said. "There's some very good overseas players in the competition, so it'll be hard work from a cricket point of view, but I hope I can put in some good performances and do myself proud.''