Cricket must deal with 'new climate' of terrorism - BCB

BCB president Nazmul Hassan has said that cricket cannot be held hostage to terrorist threats and has to devise a way to deal with the new climate. He said he wanted the ICC to get involved and would raise this point at its next meeting.

"Bangladesh is at No. 23 in the terror index published recently," Hassan said. "There are other countries on that list. But does it mean countries like India and Sri Lanka won't be hosting cricket? Won't there be any international cricket? My main point is that these terrorist threats cannot control our cricket. We have to decide and the ICC has to intervene to see what type of security plan will help everyone play cricket."

Hassan was speaking at his residence a few hours after Cricket Australia informed the BCB of their decision to postpone the tour on grounds of players' safety. The decision came less than a week after they had delayed their arrival in Bangladesh - scheduled for September 28 - to play the two Tests.

Hassan believed that the decision was influenced by the killing of an Italian national in Dhaka on Monday, just as CA's security team was ending meetings with Bangladesh's top security officials.

"As far as I know CA has still kept the dialogue open," he said. "They wrote in their press release that they didn't get clearance from their government."

Hassan said that the people of Bangladesh would feel let down. "There is no doubt that we have been hurt. The country of 160 million people was eagerly awaiting the Tests against Australia. The fans have been deprived and everyone feels let down."

Hassan said that his main task now would be to bring back international cricket to Bangladesh.

"Till now I don't know why they postponed the tour. It is hard to understand through written correspondence what actually prompted them to ignore our security plans. I hope to discuss with them at the ICC meeting this month. Our main task now would be to bring back international cricket to Bangladesh," he said.