James Sutherland, Cricket Australia's chief executive, has said that the chances of Australia traveling to Bangladesh later this year are "quite high". The Steven Smith led side are most likely to play two Tests against the Asian team if there are no further security issues.
"I think they [chances] are quite high," Sutherland said to ABC radio on Wednesday (January 4). "What we saw at the end of last year was the England team tour Bangladesh. We certainly saw very strong security around the team. We actually sent our head of security, Sean Carroll, over to observe for seven or ten days, just to get a little bit of comfort on the systems and processes that were in place.
"Anything can happen between now and then, and we continue to monitor what's happening in Bangladesh, but we work on the assumption that we're going to play and we start to plan accordingly. But we certainly get a good deal of comfort from the way in which the security measures were put in place by the Bangladesh government, in conjunction with the cricket board over there. At the moment I would assume that we would be playing two Tests over there."
"I think it [tour] is important for us," Sutherland agreed. "The fundamental for us is that safety comes first, the safety of our players and officials, and all of that. We'll make those judgments accordingly. At the same time, we have made decisions in the past to postpone a tour of Bangladesh. We were also the only team not to send a team to the Under-19 World Cup, which was held in Bangladesh not long afterward.
"Whilst there's pressure for us to get back on the horse, so to speak, and to travel to Bangladesh, we won't be compromising anything in our reviews and understanding, and getting to a level of satisfaction that the security measures are appropriate and at the level, we need and want."
While the dates are yet to be scheduled, the series will most likely take place in August or September. Australia has not played a Test series in Bangladesh since 2006. However, they did travel there to play a three-match One-Day International (ODI) series in April 2011, soon after the World Cup.
