DHAKA — Bangladesh has not made a definitive decision to tour Pakistan next month, Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) President Nazmul Hasan said Saturday, contradicting statements by his counterpart Zaka Ashraf. Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ashraf said Friday the BCB had confirmed a visit in January, which would make Bangladesh the first international side to set foot in Pakistan since armed militants attacked the Sri Lanka team bus in Lahore in 2009. “They have given us a date, which is Jan. 12. We will ask the ICC to complete their security assessment for match officials and the moment they finalize their stance, we can give our confirmation,” Nazmul told the BBC's Bengali service. Nazmul hopes the International Cricket Council (ICC) will give its go-ahead. “We have made a commitment to travel to Pakistan. It is my understanding that it is even in the minutes of an ICC meeting that we will go,” Nazmul added. “Since we have made the commitment and if we think the security arrangement is satisfactory, I think we should go.” Bangladesh had agreed to send a team to Pakistan in April this year to play a Twenty20 match and One-Day International in Lahore. However, the Dhaka High Court issued a restraining order stopping Bangladesh from playing in Pakistan due to security concerns. Eight Pakistanis were killed and six Sri Lanka players wounded in 2009 when gunmen fired on their coach as they were being driven to the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. “We will take every possible precaution before going. In my opinion, we can reach a final decision in the next 2-4 days,” Nazmul said. Herath hopes to put Australia in a spin Sri Lankan slow bowling spearhead Rangana Herath believes that Australia's limited opportunities to face quality spinners in domestic cricket will enhance his side's chances of success in next week's second Test. Herath, the leading Test wicket-taker in 2012 with 60 victims from nine matches, has carried the burden of leading the Sri Lankan attack since the retirement of spinning great Muttiah Muralitharan. The left-armer grabbed a second innings five-wicket haul in the first Test in Hobart, which Sri Lanka lost by 137 runs, and is likely to be a handful in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, on a pitch expected to offer help for slow bowlers. “I know that the Australians, even in domestic cricket, they are 80-90 percent playing against fast bowlers,” Herath told reporters in Melbourne Saturday. “So with that, I have chances to get wickets bowling spin.” Sri Lanka is still chasing its first Test victory Down Under and needs a win to square the series going into the third and final match in Sydney on Jan. 3. The visitors will take heart from the fact that they won a Test in South Africa last year while trailing 1-0 in the series with Herath claiming nine wickets in a man-of-the-match performance. “In South Africa, (it was) the same scenario,” he said. “We lost ... in the first Test and we came back strongly and we did well and we won against South Africa in that Boxing Day Test match,” added the 34-year-old, who has taken 179 wickets in 43 Tests. “That was a remarkable one, because that's the only (Test) we have won against South Africa on their soil.” — Agencies
