DHAKA  - The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is in talks with the Pakistan Cricket Board about a short tour to the country next month. BCB president Nazmul Hassan said that the talks are now all about a suitable timeframe for the tour.
"We can't go in December so we will speak to the PCB today, about whether we can fit in a small tour before the BPL," Hassan told ESPNcricinfo. Bangladesh's proposed tour to Pakistan hit a snag earlier this year when, on April 19, a Dhaka court order embargoed a series between the two scheduled for the end of April.
In November, Hassan said that the BCB had made a "written commitment" to the PCB to go ahead with the tour. On Friday Hassan explained that they are now in the second phase of talks with the PCB because the first phase, which dealt with security issues, was satisfactory. "I have spoken to those who went for the security assessment and they are quite satisfied," he said. "If we can agree on a time, we will go next month."
He also said that the players and the support staff will be spoken to about the tour, but no one will be forced to go on the tour. "The last time when we discussed (touring Pakistan), we wanted to talk to the players and find out their opinion. We will also speak to foreign staff but it is highly likely that they won't go. That we can understand. We don't want to force them."
Back in March, the ICC had introduced a "special dispensation" to be made only in "exceptional circumstances" that allowed bilateral series to take place even if the ruling body determined it "unsafe" to appoint its officials for these series. This would allow such series to be manned by "non-neutral match officials", a departure from the ICC's Standard Playing Conditions.
Hassan said the dispensation will take effect if the ICC doesn't send its officials to conduct the matches. "They [ICC] are quite clear about it. They want us to decide if we want to go or not. We will submit a security plan to them, after which they will decide whether they will send their match officials or not. If they don't, we will have to appoint match officials."