Chances of Australia touring Bangladesh quite high: James Sutherland

Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland has gone on to state that the chances of Australia touring Bangladesh in the near future are highly likely given the clear up of the security issues that have been prevalent in the state in recent times. Moreover, the fact also witnessed England face little or no problems off the pitch, prompting Sutherland to give the green light for the tour.

“I think they [chances] are quite high,” Sutherland said to ABC radio on Wednesday (January 4). “What we saw at the end of last year was the England team tour Bangladesh. We certainly saw very strong security around the team. We actually sent our head of security, Sean Carroll, over to observe for seven or ten days, just to get a little bit of comfort on the systems and processes that were in place.

However, Sutherland remained skeptical about the ordeal stating that anything could happen. “Anything can happen between now and then, and we continue to monitor what’s happening in Bangladesh, but we work on the assumption that we’re going to play and we start to plan accordingly. But we certainly get a good deal of comfort from the way in which the security measures were put in place by the Bangladesh government, in conjunction with the cricket board over there. At the moment I would assume that we would be playing two Tests over there.”

However, he also added that the tour would be an important one for Australia in hindsight. “I think it [tour] is important for us,” Sutherland agreed. “The fundamental for us is that safety comes first, the safety of our players and officials, and all of that. We’ll make those judgments accordingly. At the same time, we have made decisions in the past to postpone a tour of Bangladesh. We were also the only team not to send a team to the Under-19 World Cup, which was held in Bangladesh not long afterward.

“Whilst there’s pressure for us to get back on the horse, so to speak, and to travel to Bangladesh, we won’t be compromising anything in our reviews and understanding, and getting to a level of satisfaction that the security measures are appropriate and at the level, we need and want.”