BCB 'not too keen' on Pakistan tour

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) chairman Nazmul Hassan has said that they will not be discussing any tours to Pakistan after learning that the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had postponed their team's visit to Bangladesh in July.

"We haven't spoken about going to Pakistan since we heard their decision from the media," ESPNcricinfo quoted Hassan as saying.

"The national team [touring Pakistan] is out of the question. Our HP or U-19 [teams] might have gone there but when they made this announcement [of postponing the Bangladesh tour] we are no longer in talks. After this, there is no question of talking about the HP tour," he added.

The BCB chief said that there had been talks between of sending the High Performance or Under-19 team to Pakistan, but now those plans have been put to bed with the cricket board making arrangements for them to play teams from New Zealand and England.

"They will go elsewhere. We have confirmed programmes with New Zealand and England. We are in talks with two more countries. Within a couple of months, we will be releasing the specific schedules. Many of these series will be held at home," he said.

The BCB wants its players to have complete rest rather than forcing the Pakistan tour in July this year so that they can be ready for the two Tests against Australia in August-September, the tour of South Africa in September-October and the Bangladesh Premier League T20 tournament in November-December

"I think we can rest our players during that time," Hassan said. "Our boys are playing a lot these days. From Champions Trophy they'll come home, play against Australia and then head off to South Africa. From there, they will come home and start with the BPL, and then they have more cricket," he added.

On their last visit to Bangladesh in 2015, the PCB had reportedly taken 325,000 dollars and justified it by saying that the series had "technically" been Pakistan's home series.

This year, the BCB has rejected all proposals to share revenue although they were open to playing at a neutral venue if needed.