Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) in its EC meeting yesterday approved a one and a half-month long tour of Ireland, England and Scotland of the national cricket team but, in a surprise move, deferred the date of announcing the squad for a day.

``The team will be announced tomorrow (Saturday) after our President and chief selector have a formal meeting with the captain, manager and coach, who were with the Bangladesh team which came back from India today,'' said BCB general secretary Syed Ashraful Haque after the meeting while talking to a group of reporters.

``Our president wants to talk to them regarding their dismal performance in India. He wants to clear some points before announcing the team,'' said Ashraful, ensuring that the selectors had submitted the team for the tour.

The England bound team, which will include 17 cricketers and three officials, will leave the capital on June 2.

Ahmed Sajjadul Alam, a member of the BCB, has been appointed as the tour manager while Gazi Ashraf Hossain and Gordon Greenidge will act as manager and coach of the team which will play 19 matches including 15 one-dayers during their 45-day tour.

Besides, Bangladesh will play three three-day matches, one against MCC and two against Scotland while the other match is a two-day affair against Ireland.

The 15 limited-over matches includes three matches against Warwickshire, Leicestershire and Gloucestershire and a three-match Cairn Trophy series against Scotland, four games against Ireland and another four against local selections.

The tour will start with a one-day match against Ireland in Belfast on June 5.

Apart from the tour, the meeting, chaired by BCB president, a Deputy Minister for Shipping, Saber Hossain Chowdhury, also discussed about the poor performance of Bangladesh in the Coca-Cola tri-nation tournament in India this week.

Selim Abedin, a BCB member, who was the tour manager to India, was present in the meeting and gave a verbal report on the tour. It was gathered that, Abedin said that Bangladesh played under extreme circumstances in India and the weather was also not very suitable for the team.

It was also learnt that the Bangladesh team came under fire from many members present at the BCB meeting.