MELBOURNE, Australia, CMC-Australia have withdrawn from the forthcoming Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh because of security concerns.
The World Cup, due to start January 27, also involves West Indies, who completed a two-week training camp in Grenada last month.
Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said the decision was based on advice from the government.
“For some time we have been working closely with ICC security advisors and monitoring the security situation in Bangladesh and have been keeping our players, officials and the players’ parents as up to date as possible,” Sutherland said. “Regrettably, the advice from our Government suggests that the security threat to Australians travelling to Bangladesh remains as high now as it was when we postponed the Test team’s tour of that country late last year”.
No other team is known to have expressed any interest in pulling-out of the tournament.
New Zealand Cricket say that they would proceed with tournament preparations as scheduled.
“Included in that is reliable information suggesting there is a high threat to Australian interests in Bangladesh and the knowledge that the Australian Government has authorised the dependents of posted diplomatic staff in Bangladesh to return home to Australia,” said Sutherland.
“In the end, with all of the information and advice we have received, we feel we had no alternative other than to make this difficult decision.”
The ICC has expressed disappointment but said it respects CA’s decision.
Guyanese left-hander Shimron Hetmyer is leading the West Indies Under-19 squad in the tournament which runs from January 22 to February 4.
