Dhaka: Bangladesh on Thursday refused to send its national cricket team for the T20 World Cup in India, effectively paving the way for Scotland to take its place in the tournament roster after the ICC dismissed the country’s demand for a change of venue.
Bangladesh had been served an ultimatum by the world body on Wednesday to either agree to travel to India or risk being replaced as there was no credible threat to the safety of their players, officials or fans there. The country was given time till Thursday to make its decision.
However, taking a defiant position, Bangladesh’s sports advisor Asif Nazrul, after a meeting with national team players, announced that the ICC’s position was not acceptable to them.
Addressing the press, Nazrul said: ”While our cricketers have worked hard to qualify for the World Cup, the security risk regarding playing in India remains unchanged. This concern is not based on abstract analysis. It comes from a very real incident in which the Indian board failed to provide security to one of our top players due to pressure from extremists and he was asked to leave India.
“We are not convinced that they can ensure the safety of our entire team, journalists, and spectators. We are not giving up hope yet; our team is ready. We expect the ICC to provide justice by considering our genuine security risks and allowing us to play in Sri Lanka,” Nazrul added..
He emphasised on the security concerns, in the wake of diplomatic tensions between the two nations. “It is crucial to weigh the loss of not playing against the potential catastrophe of pushing players, fans, and journalists into a risky regional political situation. This is a government decision, as the state is responsible for determining whether its citizens face security risks abroad,” he added.
“We’ll try again to convince the ICC and look for other ways to play the tournament. If ICC fails to accommodate us, it will be a significant loss to world cricket and failure for the host country. We are still trying so that our boys can play in the World Cup. We are ready to play the World Cup but not in India but in Sri Lanka. Our team is ready,” Aminul said.
The ICC had on Wednesday given the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) an ultimatum to decide if they’ll be coming to India to play the World Cup. Talking about the ultimatum, he said, “A world organisation can’t do that. We’ll keep fighting.”
ICC’s decision was taken following a Board meeting (via video-conference) to discuss the way forward after the BCB stuck to its stance of moving its matches to Sri Lanka.
