Dhaka: Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Aminul Islam on Monday said that “we do not feel secure” in sending the national team to India for the T20 World Cup, considering the current circumstances.
Aminul spoke to reporters a day after BCB formally requested the International Cricket Council (ICC) to shift their T20 World Cup games out of India, a strong move triggered by pacer Mustafizur Rahman’s release from the IPL on BCCI instruction.
“You know that we, along with all the directors of the cricket board, held two meetings before taking this decision, and at this moment we do not feel secure sending our team to India to play the World Cup,” Aminul said.
“So we wrote a letter to the ICC, and in the letter we clearly stated what we wanted to say. Because to us, security appeared to be a major concern and that is what we are following. We have sent an email to the ICC and we are expecting them to tell us to have a meeting with them soon where we will express our concern,” he said.
“But what our next step will be depends on the reply to the email we have sent. We do not know what feedback will come (from ICC), but the clauses we have given are within the MPO. We are not communicating with BCCI because this is an ICC event. We are communicating with the ICC,” he said.
The growing expectation following this incident is that India might not be keen to travel to Bangladesh for their scheduled white-ball series in September, as the relationship between the two countries is not very cordial, though Aminul begs to differ.
“Look, cricket between the two countries (the relationship between India and Bangladesh), like playing a bilateral series or playing in the World Cup, is one thing, and security concern is another matter,” said Aminul.
“So for now, we are thinking about the World Cup issue (security),” he said.
A day after the BCB officially requested the ICC to change their venues, the Bangladesh Ministry of Information and Broadcasting instructed all broadcasters in the country to stop airing the Indian Premier League. Aminul said that he does not have much to say in this regard, as it was a government directive.
“This is India’s domestic cricket, and in domestic cricket, who to show or not to show is the decision of our government. From our side, since the government, through the Ministry of Information, has taken this decision, we have nothing to say. However, we indeed support the decision taken by the government,” he said.
