Bangladesh tour is captain Cook’s biggest call
ENGLAND’S tour of Bangladesh will go ahead next month but there remains a question mark over whether captain Alastair Cook will lead the team. Three hours of talks last night between England players and security advisers resulted in a green light for the trip despite concerns over terrorist activity. But Cook now faces an agonising decision over whether he will be there with his team because his wife, Alice, is due to give birth to their second child around the time of a tour that starts on September 30 and lasts for a month. There would not usually be a problem in having paternity leave, especially against such mediocre opposition. Yet, the sensitive nature of the trip — and the fact that the absence of Cook would make it easier for others to pull out because of security concerns — will make this one of the most difficult decisions of Cook’s career. Players and management were told at a meeting in London that England’s safety advisor Reg Dickason is happy with security arrangements for the tour, which comprises three one-day internationals and two Tests, after carrying out inspections in Dhaka and Chittagong. Yet the players will be given the chance to pull out if they are concerned about their safety in a country where 20 people were killed in an attack in July by five gunmen targeting westerners in Bangladesh. Cook left Essex’s championship match against Leicestershire at Grace Road early yesterday so he could join the players in their central London hotel for talks. Dickason stressed that England would get unprecedented protection before the players agreeing to provisionally accept his advice and agree in principle to tour. But it would only take one more incident in Dhaka in the next month to change things. England are sure to be sympathetic to Cook’s plight and would back any move to grant him paternity leave but the sensitivity of the Bangladesh tour makes it a delicate situation. Players missing chunks of tours to attend their children’s births is not unusual but Cook will be loathe to stay at
home while his charges undertake a tour where public relations will be at a premium. When Andrew Flintoff was England captain he missed the birth of his son Corey in 2006 to stay with his team in India and Cook clearly has a tough call to make. It will also be a difficult decision for the rest of the team as there has been some nervousness among the players since the attack by Islamic terrorists on Dhaka amid Foreign Office warnings about Bangladesh. The family of Stuart Broad, who is due to make his 100th Test appearance in the second match in Chittagong, have already decided not to travel and will miss the special occasion. The question now is whether any players feel the same way. Yet Dickason is highly regarded by players, management and administrators and, if he believes it is safe, then it’s probable the team will trust him and agree to travel en masse. Australia pulled out of a trip to Bangladesh last year for security reasons and withdrew their Under 19s from the age-group World Cup held in the country earlier this year. Any England withdrawal would effectively leave Bangladesh in exile along with Pakistan, who have been unable to stage international matches since the terrorist attack on the Sri Lanka team in Lahore in 2009.