Will be a big disappointment if Bangladesh don't come - Misbah

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Will be a big disappointment if Bangladesh don't come - Misbah

Pakistan hosted Sri Lanka for two Tests this December. © AFP

Pakistan coach Misbah ul Haq made his displeasure pretty clear following Bangladesh's hesitance to tour Pakistan for a full series. Bangladesh Cricket Board are in touch with the Pakistan Cricket Board for a split series with the Tests at a neutral venue and T20Is in Pakistan.

"It's very important to have this (Test cricket) going on. It will be a big disappointment for Pakistan if they (Bangladesh) do not come," Misbah said on Monday (December 23). "There is no excuse at this stage and making security a pretext is lame, because when international tours are happening, teams [are] coming and playing here, even you are agreeing to play T20 and refusing Test is something beyond my understanding.

"I don't see any reason. To me it's just an excuse and nothing else. It will be a great injustice to Pakistan because already [we are] playing less Test cricket and we want more Tests on a regular basis. If this (Test series) doesn't happen, we will be playing our next series in England after a long gap. Then we can't blame our players - like Azhar Ali returned back in form after a long span and then again he has to wait for another four months playing nothing. He will be disadvantaged. It will again feel like a debut on the next series. Our players need to play continuous cricket."

Nazmul Hasan, the BCB president, has made it clear that they are not willing to force the players to travel to Pakistan for the series. "We cannot force our players to go to Pakistan," he had said. "If any player doesn't want to go, he will not go there. We will not pressurize anyone. The board will not pressurize any player to go to Pakistan. I don't think it's time to talk about the replacement team. It will depend on the situations."

Azhar Ali too stressed teams now have no excuse not to travel to Pakistan. "I'm sure the PCB is looking at this, but I don't understand what the reason for not visiting could be," he said. "This is the ICC World Test Championship. Lots of teams have come and gone, we've had several PSL matches here. The World XI side came and major current players have played here. Most special of all, the Sri Lankan team has come and played not just one, but two Test matches. If teams aren't going to support each other here in Asia, and cricket boards in Asia don't support each other, then where will we end up?

"We play very little Test cricket anyway, and I'm sure Bangladesh don't play many Test matches either. So we must support each other and I would urge the ICC to step in because there is no excuse not to come. Things are running so smoothly, and the crowds are coming here. Everything is running perfectly and we've seen quality cricket, so I don't think there can be any excuse."