DHAKA: Cricket admirers all over the world in general and Bangladesh in particular got shocked and surprised as Cricket Australia citing “safety and security’” pulled out from ICC under 19 World Cup.
The mega event is due to start in Bangladesh from the third week of this month. This is a global event hosted by Bangladesh but organized by International Cricket Conference.
CA earlier cancelled the visit of Australian team to Bangladesh in October last year due to the perceived concern of Australian Government over players’ safety. That was a bilateral series.
Following Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade (DFAT) security alert CA commissioned a mission to Dhaka led by its head of Security Sean Carroll in October last year.
That team had intensive interaction with Bangladesh Government officials and security agencies. Australians were assured of highest level of security protection usually given to state leaders. But that was not considered enough and the visit of Australian team for playing two tests was cancelled.
Life did not stop in Bangladesh. No such acts of terrorism took place. The isolated events that happened are not rare even in USA and Australia.
Cricket teams from Zimbabwe and India visited Bangladesh. Even Australian Soccer team (Socceroos’) had a very safe and pleasant visit in Bangladesh for a qualifying match against home side in Dhaka in November. But when it again came to the visit of Australian Cricket team for participating in the ICC event the question of security and safety came up again.
CA head of security again had meetings in Bangladesh and apparently were not satisfied with the security arrangements.
It may be mentioned here that Australian team was assured of highest security arrangement by Bangladesh government, which is usually given to the head of states. Receiving reports of security chief and after discussion with Australian Government CA CEO James Sunderland announced the decision of withdrawing from the tournament.
Sunderland issued an official statement mentioning, “We have always maintained that safety and security of Australian teams and officials is our number one priority.”
“For some time we have been working closely with ICC security advisors and monitoring the security situation in Bangladesh and have been keeping our players , officials and the player’s parents as up to date as possible.”
“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.”
“Included in that is reliable information suggesting there is a high threat to Australian interests in Bangladesh.”
Sunderland also mentioned that families of diplomatic staff in Bangladesh had also been authorized by the Australian government to return home.
"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," he said.
"We have not taken this decision lightly and we apologies for the inconvenience this may create for the organizers of the tournament - in particular the ICC and BCB (Bangladesh Cricket Board)."
"Whilst the ICC notes and respects the position of Cricket Australia, which we understand is based on an advice received from the Australian Government, we are obviously disappointed with the decision," a statement from ICC Chief Executive David Richardson said.
"The ICC takes its responsibilities around the safety and security of ICC events extremely seriously. And taking into consideration the full and unequivocal support of the Bangladesh government that has been afforded to us at the highest level and through all local security agencies, the advice we have received from our own and independent security experts, and the robust security plan that has been developed, the ICC remains of the view the it is appropriate for event planning to continue as scheduled.
"Naturally, as part of that planning process, the ICC’s own security team, supported by an independent security agency, will continue to monitor closely the situation in Bangladesh, including all travel advisories provided by relevant government agencies."
Bangladesh has very successfully staged few ICC events in the past including World Cup, T20 World Cup and Asia Cup. Even last year Pakistan, India, South Africa and Zimbabwe had very successful bilateral series in Bangladesh.
Only in November and December BPL T20 featuring several international players was safely organized.
Bangladesh like any other South Asian Countries admires and adore cricket and cricketers’ .Cricket stars are virtually worshipped. Cricket is the uniting force in Bangladesh.
Australian cricket team has huge following. Moreover, Australia is trusted friend of Bangladesh. We are not sure about the sources of credible threats on Australian interest in Bangladesh. There are no reasons why Australian interests will be targeted. Anyway since concerns were raised these could be discussed and resolved.
Situation must not be as bad as Pakistan, Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan. Law and order situation in Bangladesh is much better than many countries. When it comes to cricket Bangladesh always organizes well-coordinated highest-level security.
Australia is very strong team and in any international cricket tournament, they start among the favorites. The tournament will lose spice due to the absence of Australia. We hope the CA decision does not have catalytic effect on other countries.
ICC and FIFA are two world bodies governing two world games .Australia could not stay away from sending its team for playing world cup qualifier in Dhaka.
FIFA did not accept Australian plea for shifting the match to a neutral venue. If Australia would have refused to go they would have be forfeited points which could put the possibility of qualifying for ICC World Cup in jeopardy apart from receiving hefty fines.
Security was not considered a priority then. ICC unfortunately does not pull such strength and CA will not have to compensate for withdrawing from the tournament.
Bangladesh has a full-fledged High Commission in Canberra. We are not sure what role that high commission played in this entire episode. Is not it the role of Bangladesh foreign office to project the image of Bangladesh appropriately abroad?
Why not Ministry of Foreign Affairs got actively involved with DFAT on time in digging into perceived security threats and suggests required preventive actions to the government?
Bangladesh will host Zimbabwe soon and then organize Asia cup. Is the threat only applies to Australians only? The events over the next few days will answer these questions. But Australia withdrawing from the tournament is definitely frustrating and unbecoming.
BDST: 1306 HRS, JAN 06, 2016
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