The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced on Wednesday that it would not make any changes to the schedule or groups for the men’s T20 World Cup, days after Bangladesh requested their matches be moved to Sri Lanka after refusing to play in India.
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.
In a statement Published on Wednesday, the ICC said the decision was taken after “review of all security assessments conducted, including independent reviews, all of which indicated that there was no threat to Bangladesh players, media, officials and fans at the country’s tournament venues.”
“It was noted that it was not possible to make changes so close to the tournament and that altering the schedule in these circumstances, in the absence of any credible security threat, could set a precedent that would jeopardize the sanctity of future ICC events and undermine its neutrality as a global governing body,” the statement added.
According to the statement, an ICC spokesperson said the governing body had engaged the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) over the past few weeks with “the clear objective of enabling Bangladesh’s participation in the tournament”.
But despite these efforts, the BCB has repeatedly linked its participation “to a single, isolated and unrelated development regarding the involvement of one of its players in a domestic league.”
“This link has no bearing on the security framework of the tournament or the conditions governing participation in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup,” the statement said.
Separately, Cricinfo reported that the ICC had given the BCB one more day to discuss with the Bangladesh government whether its team would travel to India.
If they continue to refuse, the ICC board will replace Bangladesh with Scotland in the tournament, based on the teams’ rankings, the report said.
On Tuesday evening, the sports advisor to the Bangladesh government, Asif Nazrul, had reiterated that under no circumstances would the national team travel to India for the World Cup.
“If the ICC gives in to the pressure from the Indian cricket board and tries to impose pressure on us by setting unreasonable conditions, we will not accept these conditions,” Nazrul told reporters, according to the newspaper. Press Trust of India (PTI).
“There have been instances in the past where Pakistan said they would not travel to India and the ICC changed the venue. We asked to change the venue for logical reasons and we cannot be pressured to play in India by applying illogical pressure.”
