FARBRACE: I WILL TOUR BANGLADESH
Coach backs tour but ODI captain Morgan still has doubts
PAUL FARBRACE (right) is the first senior member of England’s cricket squad to publicly support the tour of Bangladesh. The assistant coach, who survived a terrorist attack on the Sri Lanka team at Lahore in 2009, said of the latest security advice: ‘I have heard nothing that made me nervous about going to Bangladesh.’
PAUL FARBRACE yesterday took the significant step of becoming the first England coach or player to publicly declare his support for the tour of Bangladesh as doubts continued to surround one-day captain Eoin Morgan.
England’s assistant coach, a survivor of the terrorist attack on the Sri Lanka team in Lahore seven years ago, is convinced his team will be safe and should follow security adviser Reg Dickason’s advice to proceed with the tour.
But Morgan, believed to be the biggest dissenter in the England dressing room, again refused to commit to the trip to the troubled country when he had the chance to settle any doubts after the win against Pakistan at Headingley.
Sportsmail understands that one or two younger members of the team also have serious doubts over travelling to a country where 20 died in a terrorist attack in Dhaka in July. These players could be influenced by Morgan.
There is no doubt that Farbrace, along with head coach Trevor Bayliss — who also narrowly escaped death in Lahore while with Sri Lanka — are fully committed to undertaking the two-Test and three one- day internationals tour in October.
‘I’ve not really had a decision to make,’ said Farbrace. ‘I sat and listened as everyone else did when we had our meeting in London last week and I heard nothing whatsoever that made me nervous about going to Bangladesh.
‘We have no reason to doubt Reg Dickason or the board in any shape or form and I think we were all confident that what Reg delivered at the Langham Hotel was up to date and a hundred per cent accurate. He is the leading expert after all and I have no issues about going.’
Farbrace (right) is highly respected among the players and his views could help sway doubting minds, particularly because of his experiences with Sri Lanka. But Morgan remains critical to the ECB’s hopes of announcing full squads for the trip. Test captain Alastair Cook is prepared to travel even though his wife Alice is expecting their second child around the start of the tour, but if Morgan pulls out then there could be a domino effect among the younger players.
‘No, I have not made my mind up,’ admitted Morgan in Leeds. ‘I will be taking as much time as I need to feel comfortable and safe as it is a difficult decision to make but the ECB have given us that extra time, which helps.
‘I wouldn’t say I’m reluctant to go but when so much information is thrown at you within two months of a terrorist attack you need to digest everything and be settled within yourself so you can go there and concentrate on cricket.’
One player leaning towards going is Jonny Bairstow, who became the first player to give the ECB an encouraging indication of his decision yesterday.
‘I’ve not made a hundred per cent decision but in my mind I’ve got a lot of faith in Reg Dickason,’ said Bairstow, who spoke at an event supporting Hardys wine. ‘I’ve been on a heck of a lot of tours with him and he’s known me since I was a young boy so I’ve got a lot of faith in him. I’ve been asking lots of questions which is only natural but I’m confident the decision I will make will be a positive one, if selected, for English cricket.’
Farbrace, who is due to undertake only the one-day leg of the tour, is better qualified than most to judge the safety of cricketing tours, having been Bayliss’s assistant with Sri Lanka in 2009 when their team bus was attacked on the way to a game and eight people were killed.
‘Lahore doesn’t in any way make me an expert but it does make me more conscious and aware and I have to consider my family, too,’ said Farbrace. ‘They lived through that horrible experience that I went through when I saw people around me being killed while just helping us go to a game of cricket. I spent eight days in hospital in Colombo and had two operations on my arm, so I take these things very seriously.
‘Both Trevor and I have been really conscious not to try and influence people in any way. We’ve both said we’re going but that’s been it. People have asked us what it’s like but it’s hard because you don’t want to come across as putting pressure on anyone to go.
‘No-one can guarantee your safety in any place in the world. There’s no way you can do that and we’re living proof of that because we’ve been on the end of an attack. We can’t guarantee everyone will be safe but what we can do is trust that our board have made an informed decision because there’s no way the ECB will send us anywhere where they don’t think we’ll be looked after properly. ‘I don’t think it will be any different to when I’ve been to Bangladesh before except, by the sounds of it, we’ll have a bigger and stronger security cordon around us.
‘The last time I went there was in 2014 and they’d just finished off their elections and had some problems in the country generally. We took the advice of the Sri Lankan board and security and went and I have to say we were looked after brilliantly.
‘When you get there you have a day or so of thinking, “Crikey, there’s an awful lot of people here around us with guns”, but you very quickly settle into what you’re there for, which is cricket.
‘I’ve listened to Reg but I understand young people having reservations about going. They follow the news, as do their families, and some of them have got young kids. They’ve all got people who are anxious about what’s going to happen and I can understand them wondering whether it’s safe if all that security is needed.
‘But we also have a responsibility to the cricketing world and I know from being in Sri Lanka for two years at a time of civil war when there were regular attacks how grateful the people there were that touring teams kept coming.
‘Teams still toured and it meant an awful lot to the people of Sri Lanka that other teams actually came and toured their country. It gave the country something to look forward to and it gave people hope that things would get better. So I’ve been on the other side of it.’
England have delayed naming their one-day and Test squads by a week until September 13 so that director of cricket Andrew Strauss has extra time to persuade the doubters to travel. The situation should clarify over the next few days after England have completed their matches against Pakistan.
The big question is whether Morgan will join other senior figures in Cook, Bayliss and Farbrace in declaring his willingness to go to Bangladesh. Others could then follow.