England supremo Andrew Strauss has said there will be no ‘blacklist’ for Eoin Morgan despite the one-day captain opting out of the Bangladesh tour on security grounds. Morgan led the one-day side to home series wins over both Sri Lanka and Pakistan this season but, together with fellow batsman Alex Hales, has decided against travelling to Bangladesh for next month’s series.
But former England captain Strauss said the decision would not be held against the pair, with Morgan set to lead the one-day side on their subsequent tour of India. “Right from the start we said there are not going to be any recriminations,” Strauss told BBC Radio Five Live’s Sportsweek programme.
“It’s not like these guys are going to be black-listed and their names will not be put forward for selection. They absolutely will be,” England and Wales Cricket Board director Strauss added. “Both have done outstanding jobs for England over the last 12 months, especially Eoin Morgan whose captaining has been sensational.”
“Of course, we can’t give any guarantees because the situation might change on the ground in Bangladesh.
Someone might come in and do unbelievably well, but the intention is for Eoin to come back in as captain and Alex will be in the mix for selection as well.”
England’s tour of Bangladesh, which begins on September 30 and will include two Tests and three ODIs, was called into question after an attack on a cafe in Dhaka in July which saw 20 hostages killed, including 18 foreigners.
However, the ECB gave the tour the go-ahead after an inspection visit to Bangladesh led by team security chief Reg Dickason. Strauss was unhappy that Morgan and Hales were not prepared to accept Dickason’s assurances but respected how they had reached their respective decisions. “They were both very mature in the way they went about this,” Strauss said. “They took everything in and didn’t rush into a decision, but ultimately it came down to them not feeling comfortable about going to Bangladesh. I would have loved us to be in a situation where the whole team made a combined decision to say ‘let’s go together’. We didn’t get to that situation and that’s a shame. But at the same time every human being is different and sees the world differently. They made their decision for what they see as the right reasons and we’ll go on without them.”