BCB advised by government to make Pakistan tour as short as possible

Cricket was suspended in Pakistan for quite a long time since the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in 2009. But in recent times, teams like Zimbabwe, West Indies and Sri Lanka toured Pakistan and especially, Sri Lanka's tour was more significant as they played Test matches there. 

Bangladesh have a scheduled tour in Pakistan in January later on and a lot has been going on between Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) regarding the tour as the BCB were willing to play only T20s whereas the PCB wanted the Test matches to be played at the moment as the Tests were a part of the World Test Championship (WTC). After PCB's continuous insistence of playing Test matches, BCB were ready to play one Test there for now, but things have changed now as the Bangladesh government has advised BCB to make the Pakistan tour as short as possible. 

After BCB's annual meeting, the BCB President Nazmul Hassan informed the media that the board required a security clearance to tour Pakistan and the security personnel of the government have advised them to play only the T20s. 

Nazmul said that they had provided the security agency with the whole fixture and as the T20s were at the beginning of the tour, BCB were advised to only play the T20s considering the escalating tension in the middle east regarding Iran and USA. He added that it was safer to play T20s as the T20s required lesser time than Tests and it would be easier to play them and return.  

The BCB President also added that the PCB were informed verbally about this decision from the government but not officially but that will be done soon. 

Questioned about PCB Chairman Ehsan Mani insisting on Bangladesh touring Pakistan, Nazmul said that they wanted cricket return to Pakistan unless they would have said straight away that they will not tour there. 

Nazmul further added that Pakistan should be happy that Bangladesh were going and they cannot force Bangladesh to do anything. 

Bangladesh's scheduled tour of Pakistan included two Tests and three T20s meaning that it would require around or more than three weeks to complete the full tour. Security measures have been a big concern regarding touring Pakistan as until very recent times, teams were unwilling to tour there and Pakistan had to use the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as their alternate home venue. Pakistan have been providing Presidential level security to the teams but a recent bombing in Quetta, which happened as recently as Saturday, have once again raised the eyebrows about the security of the players.