Bangladesh will not travel to India to participate in the T20 World Cup next month, its cricket committee announced on Thursday, thereby excluding the country from the tournament.
According to ESPN CricinfoThe decision was announced after a meeting in Dhaka between Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Aminul Islam Bulbul, CEO Nizamuddin, sports advisor Asif Nazrul and several national team players.
“Our only demand is to play the World Cup – but not in India,” the BCB president told reporters.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced it will not make any changes to the World Cup schedule or groups, days after Bangladesh requested their matches be moved to Sri Lanka after refusing to play in India.
“We will come back to the ICC with our plan to play in Sri Lanka,” the BCB president said.
“They gave us a 24-hour ultimatum, but a world body can’t really do that. ICC won’t see 200 million people watching the World Cup (if Bangladesh is dropped). It will be their loss…”
“Bangladesh is a passionate cricket nation. If a country of almost 200 million people misses the World Cup, the ICC will lose a huge audience,” said BCB’s Bulbul.
“Cricket is entering the Olympics in 2028, Brisbane in 2032, India is a candidate for 2036. Excluding a major cricket-loving country like Bangladesh would be a failure,” he said.
Meanwhile, Nazrul said, “There is no possibility of changing our decision. »
He said Bangladesh’s security concerns “do not arise from speculation or theoretical analysis.”
“They stem from a real-life incident – where one of our country’s best players was forced to bow to extremists and the Indian cricket board asked him to leave India,” he said.
“We hope ICC will give us the opportunity to play in Sri Lanka,” Nazrul said.
Following yesterday’s ICC decision, Islam said Bangladeshi players were keen to participate in the World Cup and he was “hoping for a miracle from the ICC”.
“Who doesn’t want to play in the World Cup? Islam said Wednesday.
“Bangladesh players want to play the World Cup. The Bangladesh government wants Bangladesh to play in the World Cup. But we don’t think India is a safe country for our players,” Islam had said.
Bangladesh announcement on January 4, he would not play his T20 World Cup matches in India after his player Mustafizur Rahman was released by his Indian Premier League (IPL) team amid growing tensions between the two countries. Subsequently, Bangladesh “formally requested” the ICC to move its games to Sri Lanka.
The T20 World Cup begins on February 7 with Bangladesh in England’s Group C. The team is expected to play all their group matches in Kolkata and Mumbai.
