Bangladesh on Thursday said they will not travel to India to take part in the T20 World Cup, starting February 7. This comes after the International Cricket Council (ICC) rejected their request to shift their T20 World Cup matches from India. The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) took the decision after a meeting between the national team players and Youth and Sports Adviser Asif Nazrul. The BCB was given a 24-hour deadline on Wednesday to decide on its participation in the competition. The BCB insisted that it is keen on playing the tournament, but not in India. The Bangladesh board also said that it will keep in touch with the ICC to seek an alternative to the long-standing impasse.
"We will continue to communicate with the ICC. We want to play the World Cup, but we won't play in India. 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," Bangladesh Cricket Board President Aminul Islam Bulbul said during a press conference.
"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 200 million people. Cricket is going to the Olympics, but if a country like us is not going there, it is ICC's failure," he added.
"I am a huge fan of Bangladesh cricket. We all met today. All of us want to play t20 world cp. Our cricketers have put in a lot of effort to win their place in the tournament. But the challenges we had to BD players' security have not changed. The assessment of the situation is a not a figment of imagination. It arises from a true incident. One of our cricketers was denied of entry into India after the Indian Govt gave into extremists. ICC tournament will happen in India," Nazrul told the media on Thursday.
"How much ever assurance they give us, ICC is not a country. In a country where the cricket board is an extension of its GOVT (India), where our player was denied security will host World Cup matches. What is the assurance that the police and administration will help? What has changed since the Mustafizur incident that will give us confidence?" he added.
As things stand, Bangladesh is likely to be replaced by Scotland for the tournament.
