Australia likely to tour Bangladesh for two Tests in 2017

Cricket Australia's chief executive James Sutherland has said that Australia are almost certain to tour Bangladesh for two Tests in 2017 unless further security issues arise in the meantime.

In October 2015, Australia had postponed their Test tour after receiving advice from the federal government that there were "high risks" if they went ahead with the tour, and Australia also did not send a team to the Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh in early 2016.

"I think they're quite high," ESPNcricinfo quoted Sutherland as saying on ABC radio when asked what were the chances of Australia touring Bangladesh in 2017.

"What we saw at the end of last year was the England team tour Bangladesh. We certainly saw very strong security around the team. We actually sent our head of security, Sean Carroll, over to observe for seven or ten days, just to get a little bit of comfort on the systems and processes that were in place."

"Anything can happen between now and then, and we continue to monitor what's happening in Bangladesh, but we work on the assumption that we're going to play and we start to plan accordingly," he added.

Sutherland further insisted that they are certainly getting a good deal of comfort from the way in which the security measures were put in place by the Bangladesh government, in conjunction with the cricket board over there.

"At the moment I would assume that we would be playing two Tests over there," he said.

The Cricket Australia chief, however, hinted that Australia are most likely to play the Tests in either August or September.

Australia have not played a Test series in or against Bangladesh since 2006.