The players and coaching staff will have the freedom of making their decision on whether they want to travel with the Bangladesh cricket team to Pakistan, the Bangladesh Cricket Board said on Monday.
The BCB came under fire from many corners after they decided to send the national team to violence-hit Pakistan for a short trip later this month without consulting the matter with the players and officials.
A number of national cricketers expressed their concerns while the coaching staff said they are still not sure about visiting a country where nobody from the cricketing world is interested to go.
The Board promised it will not force anyone to comply with its decision.
‘Of course they will have the freedom to choose. It’s an independent country,’ Enayet Hossain Siraj, chairman of the cricket operation committee, told reporters.
‘They are our contracted players and some are out of the contract, but I don’t think the BCB will take any such decision to tour somewhere where a player does not want to go,’ said Siraj.
National fielding coach Jason Swift is the one to have publicly voiced his concern over the security and said he still has not decided whether he will join the tour party or not.  
‘I don’t know whether I am going or not. First, I have to talk with the board president and later take the decision,’ Swift told New Age.
Stuart Law, who resigned on Monday as the head coach, also expressed his concern regarding the national players and raised question on the benefit of the tour.
‘I understand that they want to get cricket being played back in Pakistan. You want to go and play a meaningful series between two teams with full strength, but if that’s not the case then what are we going to gain from going there,’ said Law.
‘I understand the Pakistan public and they need to get cricket back in their country. They love cricket. So we do love cricket. But everything got be properly in place. It’s got to be made sure by the two associating boards that everyone is hundred percent safe to go.
‘I cannot speak on behalf of the players. I have spent time with them and everyone is a bit concerned. Not just Bangladesh, but the other teams as well. The first initial response from the players around the world is “I don’t want to go”,’ said Law.
Law, whose resignation will be effective from June 30, tactfully avoided questions on whether he will go to Pakistan. 
‘As far as I know, the BCB is still coming to a decision whether we go to Pakistan. I have landed here only today (Monday) and I don’t really know too much about it,’ said the Australian.