Ahmad suppresses fear of BCCI stopping Bangla from touring Pak

A senior official of the Pakistan cricket Board has squashed fears expressed by former captains, Zaheer Abbas and Rashid Latif that the BCCI could influence the BCB to not tour Pakistan next year although the PCB had agreed to let Bangladesh field a candidate for the post of vice-president in the ICC.

"Let's not forget that both the Chairmen of the Pakistan and Bangladesh cricket Boards signed and issued a joint press release after talks in Dhaka in which it was outlined that Bangladesh would send its team to Pakistan next year but before that it would also send a security delegation to Pakistan to assess the security situation and arrangements for their team," chief operating officer, Subhan Ahmad said.

He pointed out that the Bangladesh board had shown great cooperation and support in realising the urgency of Pakistan once again hosting international matches at home.

"The discussions the PCB Chairman had with his Bangladesh board counterpart were productive and Bangladesh wants to support Pakistan by sending its team to Pakistan next year for the scheduled series," he added.

Zaheer and Rashid have both expressed fears that while the PCB has conceded its right to nominate a joint candidate for the ICC position with Bangladesh in the hope that they will tour Pakistan next year, one can't rule out the fact that the Indian board might try to influence and pressurise the Bangladesh board to not tour Pakistan.

Both the former captains pointed out that the present Indian board set up had not been very supportive to Pakistan cricket in the last two years and did nothing to indicate they wanted to see Pakistan cricket flourish.

The PCB official said that as far as the Indian board was concerned he couldn't comment on their stance but insisted as far as Pakistan and Bangladesh relations were concerned they were definitely very positive.

"Both Zaka Ashraf and Mostafa Kamal addressed a joint press conference and issued the statement about the Bangladesh team wanting to tour Pakistan and I don't think one can question the commitment of the Bangladesh board in all this," Ahmad said.

The official said that the tour was, however, subject to clearance from the security delegation that will visit Pakistan next month.

He said the ICC would get involved in the security assessment procedure for the planned tour at a later stage.

Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) President Mustafa Kamal has stressed the need of support from Pakistan in developing their game as they prepare to tour Pakistan next year.

Kamal told the Express Tribune that despite fears being expressed that Bangladesh might back out of their promise since Pakistan have already fulfilled their part of the deal, the formation of a security team have started and support from Pakistan was crucial.