South Africa women's tour of Bangladesh has been thrown into
uncertainty again, with South Africa Cricket Board (CSA) postponing the
series over "personal security concerns".
South Africa women were initially supposed to arrive in Dhaka on
October 15 to play three ODIs and five T20Is, but the tour was
temporarily postponed due to the CSA's security fears following
Australia's postponement of their men's team tour to Bangladesh for the
same reasons.
As per the new schedule, South Africa women were supposed to play
three ODIs on November 6, 8 and 10, and four T20s on November 12, 13, 15
and 16. However, the team did not land in Dhaka on November 3, as was
previously announced by both the BCB and the CSA.
A CSA release said the postponement was necessary as "South Africa will not be able to field a full squad".
"This is most unfortunate as a number of our players are unavailable
to tour because of personal security concerns, work or the end of year
study and exams at this time of year," the CSA CEO Haroon Lorgat said.
With Zimbabwe women also scheduled to arrive in Bangladesh later this
month, the BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury said that the two boards were
working on confirming the final fixtures.
"We are expecting them [CSA] to give us the new dates over the next
four-five days," Chowdhury told ESPNcricinfo. "This is an issue for the
CSA. Teams like Zimbabwe and the Australian football team are coming to
Bangladesh this month. It shows that the security situation is good in
Bangladesh."
Earlier, South Africa's women's cricket team delayed its tour to
Bangladesh while Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) made the announcement
just a day before the visitors were scheduled to arrive in Dhaka to play
three one-day internationals and four Twenty20 Internationals.
"South African cricket authorities told us that their women's team
cannot come on Tuesday," BCB chief executive officer Nizamuddin
Chowdhury told AFP.
"They cited logistic problems. We hope the problems will be solved soon and they'll announce a fresh date of arrival," he said.
Nizamuddin further said that the formation of a new itinerary would
force the board to shorten the number of matches against South Africa
since the Zimbabwe women's cricket team is scheduled to arrive in
Bangladesh in mid-November.
According to AFP there were no comments from South Africa cricket chiefs or the government.
South African women's team was originally scheduled to visit in
October but the tour was postponed following Cricket Australia's
decision to postpone its men's tour due to security concerns.