Always room for a personal decision: Morgan
England ODI captain Eoin Morgan has hinted on Tuesday that the decision to tour Bangladesh may be left up to individual players, reports ESPNCricinfo.
According to the report the England ODI team, who are the first squad scheduled to travel to Bangladesh on September 30 for a three-match ODI series before the Test team arrive later in October, will be briefed on Thursday by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) security team that concluded a security inspection of the relevant areas last week. England Test captain Alastair Cook is also expected to be at the meeting.
Security advisor Reg Dickason, Professional Cricketers Association chief executive David Leatherdale and ECB's director of cricket operations John Carr left Bangladesh last Saturday and the buzz regarding the tour in Bangladeshi cricket circles was a positive one at the time of their departure.
"The briefing will be Thursday evening, with head of security Reg Dickason, a rep from the PCA and John Carr from the ECB," Morgan said. "They've been doing the reccy and we'll be debriefed on Thursday by them. Alastair will be there and other guys who are available will come.
"They'll debrief us on the findings on both tours and we'll chat about it, it has to be quite open. People have missed tours in the past so you have to make guys feel safe to go. It's a decision you'd rather get out of the way sooner rather than later. There's always room for a personal decision, you also have to understand guys might have different priorities."
Reg Dickason, the ECB's security advisor, David Leatherdale, the chief executive of the Professional Cricketers' Association, and John Carr, ECB director of cricket operations, will present their findings after completing venue inspections in Bangladesh and India last week.
Security doubts were first cast over the tour in the aftermath of the July 1 terrorist attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan which claimed the lives of 20 civilians and two police officers. Four days later Morgan expressed concern over the tour, saying that they will wait for the security advice.
In 2001, Robert Croft and Andrew Caddick opted out of the tour to India following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in America.
Current UK government advice from the Foreign Office currently states that "there is a heightened threat of further terrorist attacks and foreigners, in particular westerners, may be directly targeted; crowded areas where westerners are known to gather may be at higher risk of attack; you should minimise your exposure to these areas.”