England limited-overs captain, Eoin Morgan, is close to calling off his participation in the country’s winter tour to Bangladesh, due to the prevailing cloud over the Asian nation’s safety in terms of hosting the westerners. Although the security advisor to the England Cricket Board (ECB), Reg Dickason, after his security assessment tour to the subcontinent had assured the board and the players that it was absolutely safe to travel there, Morgan still has qualms about the tour, owing to his previous involvements in precarious situations.
During the course of the 2010 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), wherein Morgan was a part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) squad, a bomb went off shortly before a league game between the Royal Challengers and the Mumbai Indians was about to commence. The match went ahead according to the schedule, but the players were flown away from the city immediately, and the matches thenceforth were also shifted out of Bangalore.
Also, three years later, when Morgan was in Bangladesh playing for the Gazi Tank Cricketers in Dhaka Premier Divison One League, there was a violent unrest in the city owing to the elections that were to happen in a few days’ time. These two incidents, reportedly, made Morgan pledge that he wouldn’t play in danger again.
I wouldn’t play in danger again: Morgan
“I have been to places before when things have become a distraction and once or twice when that has been security, and when it has been I told myself I would not put myself in that situation again,” the 29-year-old said.
“Playing international cricket - or any cricket - is not about worrying about different things, it should be the best time of your life, it should be something that you are looking forward to and wanting to do well in and are able to focus on.”
Recalling the aforementioned incidents, the Ireland-born cricketer quipped, “We played an IPL game in Bangalore and a bomb went off in the ground, we immediately left and went straight to the airport. That was one instance, another was Bangladesh, playing domestic cricket, during political elections where things were incredibly violent.”
Earlier, the England Director of Cricket, Andrew Strauss, had urged for full participation from the players, especially the captains – citing the ‘extra responsibility’ on them – and had given them time until Saturday, September 10, 2016, to make up their minds on whether to tour Bangladesh or not.
Strauss pressurising the players to tour Bangladesh
In the same breath, however, the former England captain was quick to mention that players voluntarily opting out of the tour would not be guaranteed automatic selection for the forthcoming tours. He was satisfied with Dickason’s analysis related to the security status there and went on to say that he would have had no qualms about touring the country.
However, Strauss was fully understanding of the mental conflict that some of the younger members of the English side might face when assessing things in such a situation, citing his own involvement in one – in 2008, after the Mumbai terror attacks – and eventually left the decision on the player’s willingness and wisdom.
“Having been through this myself, after the Mumbai bombings, intellectually coming to the decision - 'if Reg says it's safe to go somewhere, who am I to say otherwise' - in hindsight, it looks like a very simple and obvious one,” Strauss had said.
“But it still took me some time to get there at that point, and there's no reason to expect a lot of these young guys who are going through this for the first time to make an on-the-spot decision.”
Questions about the security conditions in the country were raised after a local bakery in Dhaka was attacked by armed gunmen on July 1, that left 29 people dead, including 18 foreigners.
The England squads for the 3 One-Day Internationals and 2 Tests scheduled for the tour would be picked next Friday, i.e. September 16.
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