Australia withdrew from cricket's junior World Cup in Bangladesh Tuesday over safety and security fears, after it also scrapped a Test tour late last year. Cricket Australia officials said the threat had not dissipated since early October, when the Test tour was called off because of the risk of terrorism. "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," CA chief James Sutherland said in a statement. "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 authorized the dependents of posted diplomatic staff in Bangladesh to return home to Australia." Sutherland said given all the advice CA had received, "we feel we had no alternative other than to make this difficult decision." The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced in October that Bangladesh would host the 2016 ICC Under-19 World Cup despite mounting concerns over security. Cricket Australia apologized to the ICC and the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) over the no-show at the event, which begins late this month. The ICC said it was "disappointed" by Australia's withdrawal, adding that Ireland had been invited as a replacement. "ICC remains of the view that it is appropriate for event planning to continue as scheduled," ICC Chief Executive David Richardson said in a statement. "Naturally, as part of that planning process, the ICC's own security team, supported by an independent security agency, will continue to monitor closely the situation in Bangladesh, including all travel advisories provided by relevant government agencies." The Australian under-19 squad will still travel to the United Arab Emirates next week to contest a tri-series of warm-up matches against Pakistan and New Zealand, CA said. Safety fears for foreigners have heightened in Muslim-majority Bangladesh after last year's murders of an Italian aid worker and a Japanese farmer which were claimed by the Islamic State group. Test competition The ICC will be seeking to move closer to the establishment of a formal competition for Test cricket as one of its priorities for the year, Richardson said Tuesday. Discussions with full members about a possible competition and its format had already begun and will continue over the next months before a concrete proposal is placed in the organization's annual general meeting in June. The ICC's other priorities for this year were the standardizing of the Umpire Decision Review System (DRS), to ensure a successful Twenty20 World Cup in India and to develop the game in the US, he added. Richardson said cricket in the US had potentials with more active players than Test playing nations like New Zealand and Zimbabwe.
