England's winter tour of Bangladesh in doubt over security fears as Reg Dickason prepares decision

Bangladesh was rocked by a recent bombing attack which targeted a cafe in the capital Dhaka

Reg Dickason, the ECB’s chief security officer, will make his assessment next week (Getty)

As England’s cricketers strained for Pakistan wickets at the Kia Oval, it will have come as blessed relief to many of them that they can miss this winter’s tour of Bangladesh and not prejudice their future selection.

The security situation in Bangladesh, febrile after the recent bombing which targeted a cafe used by westerners in the capital Dhaka, has yet to be reviewed by the England and Wales Cricket Board. Reg Dickason, the ECB’s chief security officer, is due there next week to make his assessment and a decision over whether to tour the country will be made once his report has been digested.

It may be that Dickason, a former Australian police detective, regards the country as too dangerous to guarantee the safety of players, officials and England supporters. Australia called off their tour there last year, an outcome many in the England team are privately hoping for this time. But if he doesn’t, the current team have been told they have the blessing of the board to stay at home if they so choose.

If England do agree to go, someone will have to fill the places, but who? Presumably, they have some young coves willing to cast danger to the wind, but what if every player picked, as presumably is their right under this diktat, decides it is too dangerous? The tour would surely have to be cancelled. Unless it is a crude mettle test, there appears to be a curious logic at play, which is that some players are more expendable than others.

Attitudes to players missing less fashionable tours like Bangladesh, Pakistan and Zimbabwe, have changed over the years. Before remuneration was generous, the leading players like Fred Trueman and Geoff Boycott would pick and choose their tours. Indeed, Trueman never played a single one of his 67 Test matches in Asia, rest being deemed better for him than slogging round the Subcontinent.

This practice largely disappeared when Asian teams became better and more difficult to beat, and missing tours became the province of the prima donna.

Even when the Board’s blessing was supposedly in place, as when Robert Croft and Andy Caddick decided to miss the 2001/02 tour to India, England’s first after the 9/11 atrocities in New York, there were mixed feelings about their absence. Forgive and forget was the promise but while Caddick was picked again Croft was overlooked thereafter, despite being the best off-spinner in the country.

The threat of terrorism has always been judged in a relative way. Australia were touring England after the London underground was bombed on 7 July 2005, and yet they did not head home. Although teams have aborted tours, as New Zealand did, twice, when bombs went off in Colombo and Karachi, there have also been those that have stayed whenever trouble has brewed.

When Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984, there were wobbles among the senior players though England eventually saw out their obligations. Ditto the 1987 World Cup tour when a bomb went off in the market place in Peshawar, a few days before England were due to play Sri Lanka. “Just don’t go into town” was the team manager’s instruction and we stayed put to play the match.

It is the impossibility of guaranteeing safety that makes security officers err on the side of caution. At the moment, only Zimbabwe have played in Pakistan since the 2009 terrorist attack on Sri Lanka’s team bus, a vehicle upon which both Trevor Bayliss and Paul Farbrace, England’s current coach and assistant coach, were travelling. It is their terrifying experience that is thought to have informed the no strings offer to the current team.

Younis Khan and Asad Shafiq congratulate one another (Getty)

For their part Pakistan, who may just level this series if they take a big enough lead at the Oval, are getting thoroughly fed up with not playing at home. Many of their officials say it is now safe for teams to return as they will offer them “presidential level” security. Trouble is, two of their presidents have been assassinated, making such promises meaningless.

England’s tour this winter, at least the first part, is to Bangladesh not Pakistan. Six years ago, I was in Dhaka covering England’s last tour there and I asked the British High Commissioner why terrorism was a problem in Pakistan but not, at least then, in Bangladesh.

“They don’t have the same history of factionalism or the disputes and warring instincts that brings,” he said.

Unfortunately, something has changed there since then, for the worse, and the authorities cannot cope. My own instinct is that Dickason will find the risk of touring Bangladesh too great at present and England will either stay at home or play a good will tour somewhere safe.