Pak-Bangladesh ties hit by latter's postponement of cricket tour, football tournament withdrawal

Karachi, Apr 24 : Sporting ties between Pakistan and Bangladesh have been hit after the latter postponed a much-anticipated cricket tour and its football club pulled out of the Asian Confederation Cup.

The PCB is upset over the manner in which the BCB used a High Court injunction to postpone its tour to Pakistan.

“Bangladesh are not playing any international cricket until September and yet they have ignored a good opportunity to play against a strong side by skipping the tour to Pakistan,” one board official was quoted as saying.

The PCB is scheduled to meet soon to chalk out future plans, including how to continue cricket relations with Bangladesh after the postponement of the tour.

Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) secretary Ahmed Yar Khan Lodhi has slammed the Sheikh Jamal Football Club in Bangladesh for pulling out of the AFC President’s Cup, due to security reasons, despite a full security plan sent to them by the PFF last month.

“We are very disappointed by their pull-out despite our assurances. We have asked the AFC to ban them because once the AFC decided we will host the event, there was no excuse for the pull-out,” The Daily Times quoted Lodhi, as saying.

Lodhi said it was strange that while the national Bangladesh team played in Lahore last year without any problems, a private club had made an issue of security.

He added that a FIFA security consultant had expressed satisfaction at the security plan.

“We did get a heads-up from the interior ministry. A team from Chinese Taipei visited Pakistan in 2007, so we’re hoping everything goes smoothly this time too,” Lodhi said.