England depart Dhaka
ECB thanks sensational Bangladesh
England flew out of Dhaka yesterday with security chief Reg Dickason adding his congratulations to Bangladesh in his case for their off-field efforts in delivering a safe, enjoyable and ultimately historic month of cricket, reports ECB.
The build-up to the tour had been dominated by security concerns following the terrorist attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka in July, and widespread speculation over whether the England team would or should travel.
But Dickason, the no-nonsense Australian who is respected and trusted for his security advice after two decades working in the game, had already been impressed by Bangladeshs successful delivery of the ICC Under-19 World Cup earlier in the year.
After a further fact-finding trip with ECB director of operations John Carr and David Leatherdale, the chief executive of the Professional Cricketers Association, he reassured the England players and officials that there was no reason the tour could not go ahead.
Everyone involved in Bangladesh cricket will always be grateful that it did, and the positive impact of Englands visit surely stretches beyond even that, after exciting and fluctuating series in both one-day and Test formats.
Ive been working in international sport for 20 years and what youve seen here, and the government input, is as good as Ive ever seen, said Dickason.
Ive been working in international sport for 20 years and what youve seen here, and the government input, is as good as Ive ever seen, said Dickason. Its certainly the gold standard at the moment.
The story probably starts with the risk assessment we did in December for the Under-19 World Cup which was held here in January. The main purpose of that was to see if it was safe for that event to go ahead, and we deemed it was.
