LONDON — When England’s cricket team plays a one-day international match in Bangladesh on Oct. 7, it will do so without its captain, Eoin Morgan. Morgan recently opted out of the tour, citing security concerns. Alex Hales, another leading English player, made the same decision, and the team’s largest supporters group has said that it, too, will follow an official government security warning and skip the tour.
The withdrawals of the players, and the nervousness among fans, reflected serious and increasingly common safety concerns in top-flight international cricket. Pakistan, the world’s top-ranked Test team, has not played a match on home soil in more than seven years, and Afghanistan, a rising power in one-day internationals, has never hosted an official international match.