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It’s official. Bangladesh have confirmed they will not travel to India for the upcoming Men’s T20 World Cup. The decision was taken following a Thursday meeting between the Bangladesh Sports Advisor, Asif Nazrul, the tournament-bound players and the officials of the Bangladesh Cricket Board. The BCB has not received the required permission to travel to India; however, officials within the board will once again try to speak with the International Cricket Council (ICC) and explain the benefits of shifting their matches to Sri Lanka. The ICC on Wednesday confirmed it would not make any changes to the original schedule, giving the BCB another 24 hours to take a final call on its participation.
The BCB President, Aminul Islam, and Bangladesh Sports Advisor, Asif Nazrul, addressed the local media on Thursday evening, and it was then that the decision to not travel to India was confirmed.
“ICC had denied us our request to shift our matches away from India. We are not sure about the status of world cricket. Its popularity is going down. They have locked away 200million people. Cricket is going to the Olympics, but if a country like ours is not going, it is the ICC’s failure. We will continue to communicate with the ICC. We want to play the World Cup. But we won’t play in India,” Islam told reporters.
“We will keep fighting. There were some shocking calls in the ICC Board Meeting. The Mustafizur issue is not an isolated single issue. They (India) were the sole decision makers in that issue. We will go back to the ICC with our plan to play in Sri Lanka. They did give us a 24-hour ultimatum, but a global body can’t really do that. ICC will miss out on 200 million people watching the World Cup. It will be their loss … ICC is calling Sri Lanka co-hosts. They are not co-hosts. It is a hybrid model. Some of the things I heard in the ICC meeting were shocking,” he added.
Ever since the BCCI and KKR removed Mustafizur Rahman from the IPL, the BCB has been adamant in its stance of not travelling to India for the World Cup, demanding that the world body shift the Group C matches to Sri Lanka. There was back-and-forth between the BCB and ICC on multiple occasions, culminating in the Jay Shah-led body putting its foot down and refusing to change the venue for Bangladesh’s Group C matches.
The ICC was clear in its communication to the BCB on Wednesday evening, stating that if they decide not to travel, they would be replaced by the next-best-ranked team in Group C, which is likely to be Scotland.
What did the Bangladesh Sports Advisor say?
The Bangladesh Sports Advisor, Nazrul, said that the entire country wants the team to play in the World Cup, provided the matches are held in Sri Lanka rather than India.
“We all want to play the World Cup. The security issue remains intact for our players and contingent in India. It started with one player getting kicked out of their players. ICC can say whatever they want, that there’s no security concern. But our player has been kicked out of their tournament. That country is hosting the World Cup. What has changed since then? If Mustafizur can’t be provided security, how can we be convinced that ICC will give security?” he said.
However, he remained coy when asked about what communication he had with the players on Thursday afternoon. He did not divulge details, only revealing that players have been told that they won’t be travelling to India.
“Whatever I communicate to players is a private communication. I won’t say anything they told us. The purpose of the meeting was to know what they want. I don’t want to put our players at risk,” he said.
