LONDON: England are to go ahead with their tour of Bangladesh, the England and Wales Cricket Board confirmed on Thursday.

“We can confirm that @englandcricket’s tour of Bangladesh will continue as planned,” said a statement on the ECB’s official Twitter feed.

The future of the tour was thrown into doubt when an attack in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, saw 20 hostages killed, including nine Italian citizens, with the Islamic State group claiming responsibility.

An ECB delegation led by security adviser Reg Dickason, accompanied by director of cricket operations John Carr and David Leatherdale of the Professional Cricketers’ Association recently visited Bangladesh to make their own security assessment.

Following their return, the ECB said on Thursday that the three ODIs and two Tests which England are due to play in Bangladesh in October-November before heading to India were set to go ahead as scheduled.

England players — including Test captain Alastair Cook and One-Day captain Eoin Morgan — received a briefing on Thursday from longstanding security chief Dickason, accompanied by ECB director of cricket Andrew Strauss, Leatherdale and Carr, as well as Tom Harrison, the ECB chief executive.

Following the meeting Strauss, a former England captain, said: “England’s tour of Bangladesh will continue as planned. Safety and security of players and management are always paramount. We’ve received a thorough risk assessment, had excellent insight into the current situation and been fully briefed on security commitments.

“The ECB and PCA have the utmost confidence in the advice and support we’ve been given.”

Strauss added that details had been discussed with the players and management in an open meeting on Thursday.

“They asked lots of questions, have time to ask more and will clearly want to take it all in -- we understand that.

“Selection for the tour will be made after the end of the (English) summer internationals [in September],” he said.

England are due to arrive in Bangladesh on Sept 30, with their schedule also including three warm-ups. One before the ODIs and two ahead of the Tests.

They are set to leave Bangladesh on Nov 2 ahead of a five-Test series in India starting the following week.

“We will, as always, continue to monitor the situation right up to and throughout the tour,” Strauss said.

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2016