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KARACHI, March 18 Pakistan captain Younis Khan expressed disappointment on Wednesday after Bangladesh postponed Pakistan's tour over security fears, saying Dhaka has deprived his team of valuable cricket.
“I am greatly disappointed,” Younis said of the Bangladesh government decision to delay the five one-day and two Twenty20 matches tour.
“The decision has deprived us of some valuable cricket once again,” he said.
Pakistan had been due to tour Bangladesh this month but the dates were put on hold after gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan team in Lahore on March 3, killing eight policemen, and wounding seven players and an assistant coach.
The attacks ended Pakistan's chances of hosting international matches in the near future and the Bangladesh postponement further jolted cricket in a country obsessed with the sports.
“It is a great setback especially when we needed practice for the Australia series,” said Younis, adding that the tour would have been a chance to try out some youngsters.
“We had some newcomers in the team for Bangladesh who we wanted to try out before our series against Australia next month, but now the tour is off we have lost that opportunity and it's demoralising for a captain,” said Younis.
Pakistan's next assignment is a five one-day and one Twenty20 match series to be played in Dubai and Abu Dhabi from April 22 to May 7.
Younis said team performance would be affected by successive postponements.
“Our team is unfortunately very short on cricket and if mishaps like this happen, our performance will decline in important series,” said Younis.
Pakistan were left without a Test last year after Australia postponed a full Test and one-day tour to the troubled country over security fears.
Efforts by the Pakistan Cricket Board to arrange interim series bore little fruit, as the West Indies, South Africa and New Zealand refused to send their teams over security fears.
India also refused permission for its team to tour Pakistan after relations between the arch-rivals worsened in the wake of last November's attacks on Mumbai, which New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based militants.
Last month a proposed tri-series in Dubai was also cancelled after Sri Lanka said it was unavailable. Bangladesh was the third team in the tri-series, to be played in late April.“We have suffered a lot from tour cancellations, mainly the India and Australia series, so we badly need cricket. I hope we get some good cricket later in the year,” said Younis, who took over as captain from Shoaib Malik last month.—AFP
