BPL without Pak cricketers

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) on Wednesday decided that the second edition of Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) will start without any Pakistani players.

“We have decided to kick off the BPL without Pakistani players,” BCB President Nazmul Hassan Papon told this to reporters during a press briefing at the BCB headquarters at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur in the afternoon.

Papon informed reporters that Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) informed them over phone that they would not send any players to the BPL until the BCB announce a specific date for Pakistan tour.

The BCB chief said there is no scope to send our players to Pakistan without any security assessment.

No international team has toured Pakistan since the March 2009 terrorist attack on a Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore, which had compelled Pakistan to host its home matches in offshore venues.

In April 2012, Bangladesh were supposed to be the first team to tour Pakistan since the attack to play a T20 and an ODI, but the trip was postponed following a High Court stay order.

The second postponement of the tour had come on December 30 when the BCB decided not to send a team to Pakistan citing security concerns.

Source: The Daily Star