Bangladesh seeks more time to take final call on Pakistan tour

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has asked the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for a week to finalise their decision regarding the upcoming tour of Pakistan.

According to sources, the BCB wants to have internal discussions regarding Pakistan’s proposal of playing the Test series first in their scheduled tour.

Earlier, while talking to media on Wednesday evening, the BCB President Nazmul Hasan had claimed that the final decision regarding the tour would be announced on Thursday.

"We asked them to play Twenty20s but today they proposed us to play Test matches. They said they will play the Twenty20 bilateral series before the Twenty20 World Cup in Pakistan," said Nazmul. "We informed them that we wanted to play three T20Is first and return home. We told them that we might tour Pakistan later on to play the Tests if we manage to reschedule the tour, but they are more interested in hosting Tests as it is a part of the ICC Test Championship. They said they have no problem hosting three Twenty20s later on."

"We are yet to take a final decision on that. I hope we will take the final decision tomorrow [Thursday]," he added.

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Bangladesh were originally scheduled to arrive in Pakistan in January for three T20Is and two Tests and the PCB was hopeful the full tour would go ahead given that Sri Lanka had visited the country for the Test series.

The BCB had already started seeking consent of their players regarding the tour. It is reported that the Bangladesh Test captain Mominul Haque along with few other cricketers, have agreed to tour Pakistan.

However, the board president confirmed that senior batsman Mushfiqur Rahim has opted out of the tour.

"Mushfiqur never showed any interest in touring Pakistan. The other players said that they wanted a short tour. We have informed PCB about our players' consent," he said. "We won't get most of our coaches, but our head coach is ready if it is a short tour [T20I series]."