Jannatul Naym Pieal
Australia have pulled out of the ICC Under 19 Cricket World Cup, to be held in Bangladesh from January 27, expressing their concerns about the safety and security of their squad and management.
The decision has been made after Cricket Australia (CA) s head of security Sean Carroll went back with his report after his meetings with the cricket and government officials Bangladesh. CA had sent a three-man delegation to Bangladesh last week to discuss security matters.
Australia s senior men s side had postponed their tour of Bangladesh in October due to security concerns and Cricket Australia Chief Executive Officer James Sutherland said it has been monitoring the situation in the country ever since.
He said that CA Head of Security Sean Carroll travelled to Dhaka last week with ICC security advisors to meet with relevant officials, consider the detailed event security plan and seek further travel advice from Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade representatives based in Bangladesh.
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.
Sutherland said it was a difficult decision to make and apologised to fans and organisers for the inconvenience caused due to their withdrawal from the event. 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.
The Australian squad, including West Australians Clint Hinchliffe, Jhye Richardson, Brooke Guest and Kyle Gardiner, are due to travel to the United Arab Emirates next week to contest a tri-series with Pakistan and New Zealand, despite their non-participation in the world event that is to follow.
No doubt, the incident of Australia s withdrawal from the tournament takes away quite a bit of sheen from the forthcoming ICC event given that the team from Down Under has won the trophy thrice in the past.
In the meantime, The International Cricket Council (ICC), on Tuesday informed that it will continue to prepare for the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup in the Muslim-majority Bangladesh despite Australia withdrawing its team from the event.
The governing body of the game explained that its own security manager and an independent security agency had been working very closely with the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and the Bangladesh security agencies, and that the planned security arrangements satisfactorily mitigate the risks identified such that it remains appropriate for the event to continue as planned.
The ICC further announced that it has invited Ireland, as the runner-up in the qualifying event in Kuala Lampur in October, to replace Australia in the 19-day tournament.
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.
The ICC U19 Cricket World Cup is an extremely important event on the ICC calendar, which has a reputation of producing international stars.
We remain confident that the ICC, in conjunction with the BCB, will be able to successfully deliver this event in Bangladesh, Mr Richardson concluded.
The post Australia withdraw from U-19 WC, Ireland to get a go appeared first on News4Security.