PCB agrees to tour Bangladesh

The Pakistan Cricket Board seems to be working hard to improve the strained relationship with the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) as it agreed to tour Bangladesh for a full series in December this year.

The itinerary for the series has been tentatively agreed upon by both the boards. © AFP

A source in the Board said that the PCB had recently approved a tentative itinerary sent by the Bangladesh board for the series that will include two Tests, three one-day internationals and a T20 match in December.

The itinerary for the series has been tentatively agreed upon by both the boards.

"Pakistan has not played Bangladesh in a bilateral series since early 2008 as it believed that the Bangladesh board had let it down on many occasions, especially by not supporting Pakistan when the World Cup matches were moved out of the country. But now things seem to have settled down," the source said.

Stating that the tension between Pakistan and Bangladesh first surfaced in 2009, the source explained, "Pakistan board has not been very happy with BCB since 2009 when it cancelled a bilateral one-day series between the two nations to be held in Bangladesh, immediately after the militants attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore.

"Pakistan team was to tour Bangladesh for the ODI series but after the attack took place, the BCB cancelled the series on security grounds, saying its government had not given clearance for the Pakistan team to play in Bangladesh."

The source said that the relations further soured between the two boards when against all expectations the Bangladesh board supported a resolution in the International cricket Council (ICC) to move the 2011 World Cup matches out of Pakistan on security grounds.

"The PCB chief Ijaz Butt was really upset and angry with his Bangladesh counterpart and even had a heated exchange with him after the ICC meeting in 2009 in which the World Cup matches were moved from Pakistan," the source revealed.

He said since then the relations had remained tense and even recently when the Bangladesh board didn't fulfill its commitment of sending its under-19 team to Pakistan two months back, the PCB got very upset.

"The PCB officials were not satisfied with the reasons given by the Bangladesh board for not sending its team to Pakistan and asking for the series to be postponed to next year," the source said.

He also informed that since 2010, even Bangladesh has been requesting the PCB to send its team to Bangladesh to play an ODI series, which was cancelled in 2009 but the PCB kept on refusing.

"But now both boards appear to have taken steps to improve their relations and the PCB recently approved the itinerary sent for the Test series by Bangladesh," the source said.