Test side waits on safe call

AUSTRALIA are booked on a flight to Bangladesh late today but will await security briefings over fears militants could target Australians before deciding whether to go ahead with the tour.

Three Cricket Australia officials were to meet with top security and intelligence figures in Dhaka yesterday, the governing body’s website said.

Sunday’s planned departure for Bangladesh was blocked after the foreign affairs ministry in Canberra warned “militants may be planning to target Australian interests.”

“This is not one of the ones you want to get wrong,” Australia’s team performance manager Pat Howard said yesterday.

“Today is a big day, we have a lot of meetings, a lot of people on the ground. We want to make sure we are not underreacting, but also not overreacting.”

Howard told commercial radio that flights had been booked for the team to depart late tonight.

“The advice we got was pretty direct against Australians and we want to make sure we’re doing our due diligence,” he said. “We’ve bought ourselves 72 hours, but Cricket Australia is not going to put the players at risk.”

He added there was no specific threat against the Australian side. CA’s anti-corruption and security manager Sean Carroll and two other officials were to meet with Bangladesh’s Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, National Security Intelligence and Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, the CA website said.

The minister on Sunday rejected as “groundless” any security threat to the tourists and said he hoped the games would go ahead. Bangladesh are scheduled to host Australia for the first Test from October 9-13 with a three-day warm-up match due to start on October 3 in Fatullah.