ECB's security delegation completes security inspection in Bangladesh for upcoming tour

The England Cricket board have completed their three-day routine security checking for the upcoming Bangladesh tour. Though the visit was a routine procedure carried out before a tour, the importance of this particular visit was very high due to the terrorist attack in Dhaka in the month of July which claimed the lives of 20 innocent people.

The Security delegation of England team which arrived in Dhaka on Wednesday (17th August), left Dhaka on Saturday(20th August) evening after the inspection. The delegation arrived in Bangladesh after completing a routine inspection for the England's tour of India later in the year.

They inspected venues in Mirpur, Chittagong, and Fatullah and gave special attention when looking at the hotels in Chittagong and Mirpur. The three-member team also had meetings with the intelligence agencies and BCB officials in Dhaka and were shown the security scheme for the tour by the Bangladesh home ministry.

The BCB's media chairman Jalal Yunus said to ESPN, "We will know whether it was a positive tour for them when they report back to the ECB. They will decide only then. They visited all the hotels and ground facilities, and were briefed about security.”

He also added, "There's no time frame, and we won't put any pressure. They took everything quite seriously here and spoke to nearly everyone, including the country's security intelligence. They were given a detailed security plan to the home ministry."

The security team consists of PCA chief executive David Leatherdale, England Cricket board’s security advisor Reg Dickason and ECB's director of cricket operations John Carr.

The England team is expected to land in Bangladesh next month on September 30 to play an ODI series of three matches and a two-match Test series.

England's tour is going to be the maiden bilateral Test and One-Day International series in Bangladesh this year. So far in this year, BCB have conducted T20 matches against Zimbabwe, Under-19 World Cup, and the Asia Cup.

The BCB's media chairman Jalal Yunus earlier said to the ESPN that they would conduct meetings with other top officials if the England delegation made a request. BCB have kept their word and according to them, they have been able to satisfy the security team of England. Bangladesh are hopeful about the tour going ahead as scheduled in October 2016.

Now it will be interesting to see what will be the decision of the England Cricket board about this bilateral series.