Australian officials yesterday were returning from Bangladesh after meetings with high-level security figures, but no final decision has yet been taken on the upcoming Test tour, Cricket Australia said.
The team’s departure was delayed on Sunday due to security fears, prompting Dhaka to pledge to provide the kind of measures usually reserved for visiting heads of state if the tour goes ahead.
“There has been no change to our position on the matter,” a spokeswoman for Cricket Australia told reporters via e-mail yesterday.
Sean Carroll, anti-corruption and security manager for Cricket Australia, met top security and intelligence officials in Dhaka on Monday.
Bangladeshi State Minister for Home Affairs Asaduzzaman Khan and Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hassan, who insisted there was no risk to the players, were also at the meetings.
“Following yesterday’s meetings, our head of security [Carroll], team manager [Gavin Dovey] and team security manager [Frank Dimasi] are on their way home from Bangladesh for further meetings with the [Australian] Department of Foreign Affairs [and Trade] and to brief our board, management and players on the situation,” the spokeswoman said.
In delaying the team’s departure, Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said the Canberra government had identified a potential security risk to its nationals’ interests in Bangladesh.
The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Friday warned of “reliable information to suggest that militants may be planning to target Australian interests in Bangladesh.”
On Monday, the British government also warned that militants might be targeting Western interests in the country, the same day that an Italian charity worker was shot dead by attackers in Dhaka.
The first Test is scheduled to take place on Oct. 9 in Chittagong and the second on Oct. 17 in Dhaka following a three-day warmup match scheduled to start on Saturday in Fatullah.
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