Bangladesh agree to tour Pakistan next month

Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Zaka Ashraf speaks during a news conference in Lahore April 18, 2012.

KARACHI (Reuters) - Bangladesh have agreed to tour Pakistan next month in the first visit by any country since armed militants attacked the Sri Lanka team bus in Lahore in 2009, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Zaka Ashraf said on Friday.

"The Bangladesh board has conveyed to us their team's visit is confirmed and they have also got approval from their board members. They have also sent us the time frame for the tour," Ashraf told the Geo News Channel.

Eight Pakistanis were killed and six Sri Lanka players wounded when a dozen gunmen fired on their coach as they were being driven to the Gaddafi stadium.

It was the first major attack directed at athletes since the 1972 Munich Olympics when the pro-Palestinian Black September group killed 11 members of the Israeli team.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board agreed to send a team to Pakistan in April this year to play a Twenty20 and one-day international in Lahore. However, the Dhaka High Court issued a restraining order stopping the Bangladesh players from playing in Pakistan due to security concerns.

"I am pretty confident now this tour will take place and signal the return of international cricket to Pakistan," Ashraf said.

"We will soon also be co-ordinating security arrangements for the tour with the provincial governments." (Editing by John Mehaffey)