5 instances when cricket teams refused to tour due to security reasons
In what is a welcome development, the England Cricket Board has decided to send in their team to Bangladesh for a bilateral series. This decision comes in after a long period of intense deliberations and debates about the security conditions prevailing in Bangladesh.
However, Andrew Strauss has maintained that the final decision to tour the country will be left to the players and that there will be no pressure from the board. This is not an isolated incidence when a country has had issues touring nations owing to a security threat. Over the years, many tournaments had to be cancelled because teams were not very confident about the security of the touring nation.
Here, in this list, we take a look at 5 such instances when teams have decided to call off their series because of security concerns.
#1 Australia, 1996 World Cup
Back in the year 1996, Sri Lanka was in the midst of a civil war which was raging between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. As a result of this volatile situation the Australian cricket team decided not to tour the island nation during the 1996 World Cup as they feared a suicide attack by the rebel group.
These fears were justified as just before the World Cup, there was a bomb blast just outside the hotel of the Australian team. The points for this match was awarded to the hosts.
Ironically Sri Lanka went on to beat Australia in the finals to lift the trophy.