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India tour uncertain yet

SPORTS REPORTER
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Ali Asghar finally broke his silence yesterday. But his rare encounter with reporters at BCB's management office in Gulshan gave no clear indication of whether India would host Bangladesh for a full series next year.
Asghar, who returned home on Saturday after attending the International Cricket Council (ICC) meeting in Melbourne, was supposed to win a definite commitment from his Indian counterpart Ranbir Singh Mahendra over the pending tour that was stalled twice.
"Bangladesh's tour of India is still on for sometimes in next September-October. But we will get a definite response from India only after the approval of ICC's next Future Tour Programme (FTP) which will be ratified in March next year," said Asghar.
India, Bangladesh's opponent in the inaugural Test in 2000, has also played their first full series here last year. But they somehow failed to provide a slot for Bangladesh's return visit to India as prescribed in the ICC's first five-year programme.
Former BCB president Saber Hossain Chowdhury during his recent
visit to India criticised the present board for failing to arrange the tour. He also claimed that the tour did not take place due to cold relationship between the boards.
Although Mahendra reacted sharply to Saber's statement, terming him as a liar, but his another effort to buy more time from Asghar in Melbourne raised questions on whether India was really interested to host their neighbours. Because the next FTP has got nothing to do with India's legal obligation to host Bangladesh that has long been settled.
India had earlier promised to host Bangladesh twice but backed out apparently to accommodate more
lucrative home assignments against Pakistan.
Asghar however was not interested to disclose whether India has officially expressed to host Bangladesh in September-October next year.
“I can only say that the tour is on and you will get the details after the next ICC meeting in March.”
The BCB boss said that the FTP was not approved this time following objections from the Asian and African members.
“The interests of the Asian and African Test countries didn't reflect in the draft FTP rather it hugely favoured Australia and England,” he added.
He also confirmed that there was no chance to cut off Bangladesh's away series in the new roster. Asghar however showed interest on playing more series at home than abroad.
“We wanted to play at least two series at home in a year during the period because it would be our main source of income. We have desired to hold at least two triangular series involving India and Pakistan during the next six-year cycle,” he said.
Asghar said that the ICC wanted both Bangladesh and Zimbabwe to hold a tri-series involving Kenya.
“We are not against the idea. Interestingly, Sri Lanka also showed interest to play a triangular series when they visit Bangladesh in March next year. In that case we might invite Kenya,” he said.
But the board president expressed his dissatisfaction over the progress of the preparation of cricket's new home -- the Mirpur Stadium.
“We are really worried about the Mirpur ground. The renovation work is going at a snail's pace due to fund crisis. The NSC should speed up the work if they want the venue to be ready before the home series against Sri Lanka,” said Asghar, who ruled out the possibility of holding matches at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.
“I have also requested ICC high-ups to send a team soon to visit Bangladesh so that we can get approval of more venues to hold international matches,” he informed.
Asghar however was doubtful about the Mirpur Stadium. Next year's home series will start with the coming of Sri Lanka in last week of February and after that Australia will visit Bangladesh in April.