England consider successful U19 World Cup hosting for Bangladesh tour

The successful hosting of the Under-19 World Cup earlier this year is behind Bangladesh as England ponder over the safety of their forthcoming tour.

A three-man security team from England reached Bangladesh on Wednesday for a three-day tour.

Before the World Twenty20 in India this year, Bangladesh hosted the Asia Cup and the Youth World Cup without any hiccups, even though Australia had pulled out of the latter citing security concerns.

On the security team's visit to Mirpur's Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium for inspections on Thursday, John Carr, ECB Director of Cricket Operations, said their trip to Bangladesh was just a 'routine visit'

"We are here for three days, seeing all the facilities - hotels and cricket grounds. We are meeting with the security providers."

Carr said they always visit all countries before a tour but a militant attack on a restaurant in Gulshan on the night of Jul 1 made this security trip all the more necessary.

The team will fly for Chittagong on Friday. As expected, they will not reveal any assessment they make during their stay in Bangladesh.

"We have to go back and report to the ECB board before anything is made public," Carr added.

If things go as planned, the England cricket team will arrive in Bangladesh on Sep 30.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board, which has already taken several security measures, is optimistic about the tour going ahead.

The Chief Security Adviser to the England and Wales Cricket Board, Reg Dickason - who has been in Bangladesh before - is part of the unit alongside Professional Cricketers Association Chief Executive David Leatherdale.

"We are very much aware of the provisions of the recent ICC events. We are aware of security provisions in recent times provided by the Bangladesh government," Carr said.

Meeting at home ministry

The England security delegation sat with Home Secretary Md Mozammel Haque Khan at the Secretariat on Thursday afternoon.

Officials of the BCB and security agencies were present there.

"The ECB representatives wanted to know if the situation was okay for matches to be held in Bangladesh. We told them about the security measures we have taken…They were satisfied with it," Mozammel Haque said.

"We will put every provision in place so that the matches here are held properly. We also told them that before this we had always taken proper safety measures here for international matches and they were held without any incident."