Australia postpone Bangladesh tour

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan Papon reacted in the strongest possible terms to the news that Australia had decided to postpone their tour to Bangladesh.

"Till now I am not exactly sure what made them postpone the tour. The security plan that we provided would have been accepted by any security expert in the world," said Papon.

Papon said that he would bring up the issue at the next ICC meeting, but he also kept faith in the relationship between the two boards, hoping that the series would go on at a later date.

"I believe that this issue will be better understood once we sit and have a face-to-face discussion. There is an ICC meeting on the ninth and we will talk about it in detail then," said Papon.

"They haven't scrapped the tour, they have postponed it. We have a good relationship with Cricket Australia and I am sure that we will be able to reschedule the tour as soon as possible," he added.

He also questioned the decision by saying that Bangladesh were much better off in the Terrorism Index than other countries, but stated that threats should not deter cricket.

"In the Global Terrorism Index rankings, Bangladesh is ranked 23rd. After us is England [27th] and India is ranked sixth. So does that mean cricket won't be played in these countries? Terrorism can't stop cricket. And this is a major issue that I will be discussing in the ICC," he added

Earlier yesterday, Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland had said in a handout that the tour would be postponed indefinitely.

"After six days of extensive deliberations and research, we've come to the conclusion that we have no other alternative than to postpone our tour to Bangladesh," said the official handout.

"We understand that this decision will be very disappointing for the cricket community in Bangladesh. However, from an Australian perspective, the safety of our players and officials is our highest priority. We will work with the BCB to reschedule the tour as soon as possible," he said.

The players of the national team that were scheduled to play in the first Test against Australia have now returned to their respective divisions to play in the National Cricket League.