Australia have withdrawn from the Under 19 World Cup in Bangladesh this month because of concerns over the “safety and security” of the squad, Cricket Australia said in statement on Tuesday.
Australia postponed a Test tour of Bangladesh in October for similar reasons and Cricket Australia (CA) chief executive James Sutherland said the situation had not improved.
“Regrettably, the advice from our government suggests that the security threat to Australians travelling to Bangladesh remains as high now as it was when we postponed the Test team’s tour of that country late last year,” Sutherland said in the statement.
“Included in that is reliable information suggesting there is a high threat to Australian interests in Bangladesh and the knowledge that the Australian government has authorised the dependants of posted diplomatic staff in Bangladesh to return home to Australia.
“In the end, with all of the information and advice we have received, we feel we had no alternative other than to make this difficult decision.”
Bangladesh faces what appears to be a growing threat of militant violence and has seen a string of incidents last year including the shooting of three foreigners, two of whom died.
The International Cricket Council said via Twitter preparations for the January 22-to-February 14 tournament were continuing and Ireland had been invited to replace Australia.
“The ICC takes its responsibilities around safety and security of ICC events extremely seriously,” ICC chief executive David Richardson was quoted as saying. “ICC are confident that the proposed security arrangements for [the tournament] will adequately address the identified risks.”
Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hassan told Reuters the withdrawal was “unfortunate”.
“We are ensuring highest security,” he said. “We don’t see any security issues in Bangladesh. You just can’t stop games considering one or two incidents. Terror attacks are happening everywhere in the world. But games are taking place.”
Sutherland said Cricket Australia had monitored the security situation in Bangladesh closely since pulling out of the Test tour and their head of security had travelled to Dhaka last week.
“We have always maintained that the safety and security of Australian teams and officials is our number one priority,” he added.
The Australia U19 squad will still travel to the UAE next week to play a tri-series against Pakistan and New Zealand.
Day 3 of Sydney Test washed out
Meanwhile, rain appears to have scuttled Australia’s hopes of sweeping their series 3-0 over West Indies after a third-day wash-out in the third and final Test on Tuesday.
The entire day was lost through rain, with the tourists on 248 for seven in their first innings and a total of 86.2 overs bowled in the first three days at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
The only chance of a result seems to be some creative declarations from rival captains Steve Smith and Jason Holder, but Windies coach Phil Simmons said the weather would have the final say.
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“I think we need to see how much play we get tomorrow first,” Simmons said. “One side is telling me there is showers again in the morning and now I’ve just heard there may be showers in the afternoon too so we’ve just got to see what happens tomorrow then we go from there.”
With no action to speak about on the field, Simmons was asked if there was a light at the end of the tunnel for his beleaguered team after two heavy Test defeats in Hobart and Melbourne.
“I think we have seen in the last three days of cricket [including Melbourne] we’ve had, we’ve improved and our batting seems to be thinking about it more and fighting a little bit harder to not give the Aussies wickets,” he said.
“There is a lot of light [at the end of the tunnel] with the players and I think you can mention [Kraigg and Carlos Brathwaite] because they have got runs.
“The way how [Darren] Bravo has batted in all the Test matches. The way [Rajendra] Chandrika has looked. He hasn’t gone on to a big score but the way he looked early on.
“Even the captain [Holder] when he batted in the second Test on the last day you can see there’s a lot there to work with.”
But Simmons, who has had his brushes with the West Indies cricket board, believes for the Caribbean team to progress in Tests it will need all its best players from the three formats of the game.
While the Test team struggles, Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Darren Sammy and Andre Russell are in Australia but playing in the Twenty20 Big Bash League.
“I still have the feeling that it will always be good to get the best players from the West Indies playing all formats of the game,” he said.
“If we can get that, then we will have an organisation that is moving forward.
“That is my hope now, at the end of the day we might have a solution but we still might have players that might not think they can play Test cricket, or might not really want to play Test cricket anymore.
“So when we get to that solution between the parties that are involved then we can see where that takes us.”
Further rain is forecast on Wednesday. If play is possible the West Indies will resume with Denesh Ramdin on 30 and Kemar Roach yet to score.
ICC revisits idea for Test championship
The International Cricket Council will be seeking to move closer to the establishment of a formal competition for Test cricket as one of its priorities for the year, chief executive David Richardson said on Tuesday.
Discussions with full members about a possible competition and its format had already begun and will continue over the next months before a concrete proposal is placed in the organisation’s annual general meeting in June.
“We want to make a huge effort this year to put something in place that will help us sustain the value of bilateral cricket and, in particular, the profile of Test cricket,” Richardson said in Cape Town where South Africa are hosting England in the second of their four-Test series.
“The Ashes are still extremely successful and generate lots of money and generally test series against India will generate money, but there are a lot of series that happen that do not make much more than just to cover the costs.
“We are consulting with all our members to see what we can do to give more context and meaning to bilateral cricket, whether that is introducing a Test league or Test championship or whether it’s introducing proper qualification leagues, like they do in football, for ICC events.”
“If something does come of it, existing television deals means it would only be able to be implemented after 2019,” he added.
Questions over technology
The ICC’s other priorities for this year were the standardising of the Umpire Decision Review System (DRS), to ensure a successful Twenty20 World Cup in India and to develop the game in the US, he added.
“We have engaged MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology] to do research on all the DRS technologies and, in particular, the edge-detection and ball-tracking so that we’ve got a institute with credibility to pronounce on that.
“Once we have those results, we can the review all the principles and policies around how the technology is used with the aim to produce a uniform DRS system that we can provide wherever international cricket is played.
“I can’t promise that every one will accept it as yet; that’s an unknown, but once the MIT results are known hopefully that will make it easier to achieve.”
Richardson said cricket in the US had potentials with more active players than Test-playing nations like New Zealand and Zimbabwe.
“There are 18 leagues around the US but they are very fragmented and for that reason the country has made no progress. We have gone in to try and united everyone.”
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