"There was no mutual understanding for cancellation of BAN tour" - BCB Chief

What's the story?

Nizamuddin Chowdhury, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) chief executive, noted that they were quite surprised with the manner in which Cricket Australia(CA) announced the postponement of their scheduled tour of Australia to play two Tests and three ODIs in August-September this year.

The details

CA through a spokesman had announced the decision of scrapping the series against Bangladesh, and further added that it was agreed mutually by both parties.

However, BCB's chief executive, Nizamuddin said that they were instead waiting for the response for their alternative proposal of playing only ODIs after the Australian board had communicated to them that they were unwilling to host the series due to estimated financial losses. Nizamuddin also observed that he was surprised to learn via CA's statement that the tour was postponed by mutual understanding.

"CA had communicated with us and said that the [2018] tour would not be possible for certain reasons. We have an understanding of their reasoning but that does not equate to mutual understanding,'' Nizamuddin was quoted as saying on Friday.

"I want to stress that an alternative proposal was made and we had not gotten a reply. If they take this as mutual understanding, I do not agree," he added.

Nizamuddin also pointed out that there have been several instances when Bangladesh hosted series despite being financially not viable enough. ''They looked at how financially viable the series will be for them, which is disappointing. Many of our home series aren't necessarily beneficial. We have to host a lot of countries to maintain bilateral commitments. It is not always financially viable. If the BCB can afford them, then we would expect the bigger cricket boards to do the same,'' he said.

In case you didn't know...

CA had earlier canceled two tours to Bangladesh, citing security reasons. Australia's national side had refused to travel in 2015 for a full tour. The Australian Under 19 set-up also didn't participate in the Under 19 World Cup held in Bangladesh in 2015-16.

James Sutherland, CEO, Cricket Australia (CA) spoke to the media on Wednesday declaring the tour, scheduled to begin in August, to have been scrapped over fears it would not be commercially viable when competing head to head with the AFL(Australian Football League) and the NRL(National Rugby League) for television time and other marketing issues.

Australia has rarely played Bangladesh in bilateral events, the latter's first and only bilateral tour down under being held way back in 2003. The proposal of an imminent series between the two sides was a subject of importance too, as it is rare that a side doesn't tour another nation for so long. Australia has played Bangladesh in just three test series so far and has only hosted the cricket minnow once — when Australia won the 2003 Top End series 2-0.

Australia's tour to Bangladesh last year - where the Tigers have recorded six of the 10 Test victories they have notched in 106 matches since earning Test status in 2000 - ended in a 1-1 result after the hosts won the opening fixture in Dhaka.

What's next

According to Nizamuddin, one of the options being looked at is that of Bangladesh touring Australia after the 2019 ICC World Cup.

“The way in which everything works in cricket is that it’s really at the home team’s discretion to work things out as to how much they want to host and what they want to host,” CA chief James Sutherland was also quoted as saying. “We commit to content in other parts of the world under the previous or current cycle, every six years you are at least committed to playing away."

Author's take

In these days of widespread marketing of almost all major sporting events, commercial success has indeed become a strong motivation for such events to be held. As opposed to the olden days where any sport was just a game between two sides, a lot of other things such as revenue generation, advertisements, television viewership, and so on have to be taken into account these days, which in turn becomes half the reason for the ad-hoc manner in which most bilateral cricketing tours have been organised and cancelled at various points in recent history, invariably at the expense of the less financially strong countries.

Right now, the decision from Cricket Australia to reject the Bangladeshi tour strongly mirrors the BCCI's refusal to play a day-night Test this summer in contravention of CA's wishes. However, CA had gone ahead with the series nevertheless, citing the popularity of the Indian side as a reason. Meanwhile, because of a very unfair decision against themselves, Bangladesh continues to wait for a second shot at a tour down under - the previous one having been held a remote fifteen years ago.