Australia tour of Bangladesh postponed

Australia's two-Test tour of Bangladesh, scheduled to begin on October 9th, has been postponed due to security reasons. Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland on Thursday, confirmed the latest development, that the tour will not go ahead as planned. Sutherland expressed his disappointment at the eventual decision of postponing the tour but conceded that there were no other alternatives.

"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. It's a very disappointing outcome from our perspective," Sutherland was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.

Australia's full squad was to fly out to Bangladesh last Monday before a security warning from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, delayed their departure. While Bangladesh Cricket Board officials assured Australia that their security will be top priority and that the country was safe for the tour, Sutherland said they had a 'rigorous process' to understand the threat they were warned about by DFAT and had several meetings with the cricket board and government of Bangladesh before arriving at the decision.

"Six days ago we were informed by ASIO and our Department of Foreign Affairs that there was a credible risk to Australians in Bangladesh and we've worked through a rigorous process to try and understand that. We've had three people on the ground meeting with Bangladesh Cricket, Bangladesh government sources and members of our foreign affairs department in Bangladesh. In the end, all things considered, we've made this decision to postpone the tour for now and we'll enter into discussions with the Bangladesh Cricket Board about when we can play this cricket series next," Sutherland said.

Even though Pakistan, India and South Africa toured Bangladesh recently without any security issues, DFAT's warnings were followed by an Italian aid worker being killed in Dhaka by terrorist group Islamic State. Sutherland did not comment on the events but stated that the threat was credible.

"It's not really appropriate for me to go into specific detail on this. But all I can say is that the threats were credible and real and targeted, not only against Westerners but against Australians."

While Sutherland mentioned that the two boards will soon speak again to discuss another date for the tour, the turn of events leaves a big question mark over the upcoming Under-19 World Cup that is set be held in Bangladesh in January 2016.