Australia likely to tour Bangladesh in 2017

Dhaka, Jan 5 (IANS) Cricket Australia Chief Executive James Sutherland has said chances are high that the Aussies will visit Bangladesh for a two-Test series later this year unless new security issues crop up.

Steven Smith and his men were supposed to tour Bangladesh in October 2015. But the trip was postponed at the last moment over security concerns despite Dhaka promising highest possible security, reports bdnews24.com.

Citing the same reason, Australia also pulled out of the Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh early last year.

"I think they're quite high," CA website quoted Sutherland as saying to ABC radio on Wednesday regarding the chances of Australia touring Bangladesh in 2017.

"(During) the England team's Bangladesh tour... we saw very strong security around the team. We certainly get a great deal of confidence in the way the security measures were put in place by the Bangladesh government in conjunction with the cricket board over there."

England's month-long tour went smoothly over venues in Dhaka and Chittagong towards the end of last year. During the tour, Cricket Australia sent their head of security Sean Caroll to Bangladesh to observe the situation.

Sutherland said no dates had yet been fixed for the series.

"At the moment, I would be assuming that we would be playing two Tests over there. They're tentative dates around August or September, I would think."

Australia have not played a Test in Bangladesh since Ricky Ponting and his men toured the country in 2006.

Other than major tournaments, the two nations have played just two One-Day series against each other in Darwin (2008) and Dhaka (2011) since then.

--IANS

sam/mr