India tour probable

[reverse_swing]

* Full-fledged India tour likely this year
* Pakistan tour currently not on the agenda
* BCB president urges BPL franchises to comply with February 5 deadline

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan Papon said on Friday that he is hopeful that the Tigers will visit India for a maiden full-fledged tour this year.

Following discussions with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president N Srinivasan on the sidelines of the recent ICC first board meeting in Dubai, Papon said that the BCCI chief assured him that he will seriously try to host Bangladesh for a full series by the end of this year.

“I'm now focusing on how we can tour India this year. I'm very much hopeful because the BCCI president assured me that he will seriously try to host Bangladesh for a full-fledged series by end of this year,” Papon, who returned home after attending his first ICC board meeting two days back, told the reporters at the MA Aziz Stadium.

Bangladesh played their inaugural Test against India in November 2000 in Dhaka but they have never been on a full tour of India since their Test status in 2000.

It should be noted that former BCB president Mustafa Kamal also said in June last year that he had received a positive response from N Srinivasan about Bangladesh's tour to India by the end of 2012 but that did not materialise.

We are yet to take any decision about our players' participation in the PSL (Pakistan Super League) but as I said we have to hundred percent satisfied with the security,” said Papon, adding that they were in no way on the back-foot despite PCB's refusal to give their players NOCs for participating in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League (BPL).

“Actually the Pakistan tour is not in our mind at this moment because we have the Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe tour in the line and we want to try our best so that we can make sure that Bangladesh will visit India for a full series by the end of this year,” said Papon.

The BCB boss was also not worried with the non-payment issue in the ongoing second edition of BPL and he was hopeful that everything will be solved by February 5, their latest deadline for the franchises to solve all the financial issues.

“In the ICC meeting everybody highly praised the BPL. And it's nice that the tournament is going great and the fans have also started to come. I know there is talk about the non-payment issue and one of our local players also talked about the issue but what I want to say is that everybody should talk with the BCB before making any comments. Owais Shah admitted his mistake after he had provided the wrong account number.

“We made all the payments from last year and I can assure everybody that they will get their money this season also. We have the latest deadline till February 5 and the franchises will make a big mistake if they don't clear their dues. They (franchises) will suffer heavily for broken promises this time,” warned Papon.

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