DHAKA: The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) on Tuesday said it could only give its go-ahead to a Test series in Pakistan after the Twenty20 series despite the latter not taking their dilly-dallying on playing a Test series well.

"Pakistan will try for the full return of international cricket to their country. We have to take into account the views of our players and members of our team management, who are foreigners," BCB chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury was quoted as saying by a cricket website on Tuesday.

“The match environment is also important to us. Relevant stakeholders’ view is also important, regarding a longer tour to Pakistan. Our primary proposal is to play three T20Is in a shorter period so that players and team management can do a proper assessment of the situation there [in Pakistan],” he added. Pakistan’s Test skipper Azhar Ali and head coach-cum-chief selector Misbah-ul-Haq had on Monday slammed Bangladesh’s reported unwillingness to play Test cricket in Pakistan, saying it is "a great injustice" and "there is no excuse not to come".

Bangladesh are slated to play two Tests and three T20 Internationals against Pakistan in January.

The Sri Lanka Test series in Rawalpindi and Karachi went off smoothly and the PCB said there was no justification behind Bangladesh’s refusal.

Pakistan had thrashed Sri Lanka by a huge margin of 263 runs in the Karachi Test to win the historic two-match series 1-0.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2019