South Africa postpone tour over ‘personal security reasons’

South Africa women's tour of Bangladesh has been thrown into uncertainty again, with South Africa Cricket Board (CSA) postponing the series over "personal security concerns".

South Africa women were initially supposed to arrive in Dhaka on October 15 to play three ODIs and five T20Is, but the tour was temporarily postponed due to the CSA's security fears following Australia's postponement of their men's team tour to Bangladesh for the same reasons.

As per the new schedule, South Africa women were supposed to play three ODIs on November 6, 8 and 10, and four T20s on November 12, 13, 15 and 16. However, the team did not land in Dhaka on November 3, as was previously announced by both the BCB and the CSA.

A CSA release said the postponement was necessary as "South Africa will not be able to field a full squad".

"This is most unfortunate as a number of our players are unavailable to tour because of personal security concerns, work or the end of year study and exams at this time of year," the CSA CEO Haroon Lorgat said.

With Zimbabwe women also scheduled to arrive in Bangladesh later this month, the BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury said that the two boards were working on confirming the final fixtures.

"We are expecting them [CSA] to give us the new dates over the next four-five days," Chowdhury told ESPNcricinfo. "This is an issue for the CSA. Teams like Zimbabwe and the Australian football team are coming to Bangladesh this month. It shows that the security situation is good in Bangladesh."

Earlier, South Africa's women's cricket team delayed its tour to Bangladesh while Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) made the announcement just a day before the visitors were scheduled to arrive in Dhaka to play three one-day internationals and four Twenty20 Internationals.

"South African cricket authorities told us that their women's team cannot come on Tuesday," BCB chief executive officer Nizamuddin Chowdhury told AFP.

"They cited logistic problems. We hope the problems will be solved soon and they'll announce a fresh date of arrival," he said.

Nizamuddin further said that the formation of a new itinerary would force the board to shorten the number of matches against South Africa since the Zimbabwe women's cricket team is scheduled to arrive in Bangladesh in mid-November.

According to AFP there were no comments from South Africa cricket chiefs or the government.

South African women's team was originally scheduled to visit in October but the tour was postponed following Cricket Australia's decision to postpone its men's tour due to security concerns.