Bangladesh leaves no stone unturned when it comes to providing security for foreign teams coming to play.
Be it in the capital or Chattogram, Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) ensures without a shadow of doubt that the security in place for the visitors is top-notch and impenetrable.
When the players travel between the venue and the hotel, the roads are blocked at least 10 minutes beforehand and their buses are followed by police cars, ambulances and fire service vehicles. The same protocol remains in place should they choose to visit other places.
The law enforcers, at BCB’s request, work heart and soul to ensure proper security. In fact the Australian team backed out of coming to Bangladesh in 2016 as they had reservations about their security.
More often than not, a delegation of the foreign teams usually visit ahead to scrutinize the security system and only then does a cricket tour gets finalised. This, however, isn’t mandatory as the International Cricket Council (ICC) doesn’t really have a specific blue-print for security.
Although ICC takes adequate measures during its own events, when it comes to two countries, the council leaves security negotiations up to agreements between them.
While Bangladesh is nothing less than giving in terms of security protocols, the country itself lags behind in receiving security when its own cricket team- the Tigers go for cricket tours.
The Christchurch mosque massacre in New Zealand had recently brought the Bangladeshi cricket teams’ security in limelight given that the players escaped the narrowly.
The team bus was in close vicinity from the scene of carnage when the players, who were on their way to offer their Friday prayers in that very mosque, first heard gunshots.
The cricket team which included star players such as Tamim and Mushfique didn’t even have a liaison manager, let alone security.
Did the New Zealand cricket board not take the Tigers’ security seriously or is it such a safe country that they didn’t expect such a crisis to hit, is a question that’s on everyone’s mind.
“When two countries sign series agreements, providing security on a national level comes up,” says BCB Chief Executive Officer Nizamuddin Chowdhury.
He added that the measures are taken after an assessment of the security situation.
“When a foreign team visits, our security forces assess the situation and draw up plans accordingly,” he said and added that if the visitors want to add something, they do it through their respective missions in Bangladesh.
“Their security was nowhere near to the kind that we provide,” said BCB President Nazmul Hassan.
“It’s not just New Zealand, we don’t get adequate security anywhere in any of the countries that we go to,” he added.
Responding to queries about why Bangladesh is deprived of proper security, spinner Abdur Razzaq told Bangla Tribune, “Many top teams don’t want to play with us. If a match can be arranged with them after trying really hard, the rest of the matters are not brought up.”
He added that due to this reason the players are often deprived of both security and logistic support.
“The foreign teams ensure these things a hundred percent. We need to work on that,” he said.
Former cricketer and BCB Director Khaled Mahmud Sujan said that from now on a delegation from Bangladesh should go check out the security arrangements before the team plays anywhere.
“When teams like Australia, New Zealand or England visits, their security teams check out our hotels, roads and routes beforehand,” he said and added that as an international team Bangladesh should do the same.