An important board meeting of the International Cricket Council i.e. ICC is going to be held on Wednesday. A final decision regarding Bangladesh’s participation in the T20 World Cup is expected to be taken in the meeting. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, just a day before the ICC Board meeting, the Pakistan Cricket Board has formally supported Bangladesh’s stand by writing an email to the highest administrative body of cricket.
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CC mailed to all ICC board members also
According to a report by ESPN Cricinfo, PCB has supported Bangladesh’s stand and told ICC that BCB’s decision of not playing in India is right. The report also states that the PCB has also CC’d all ICC Board members in its email.
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What is the controversy?
The controversy started when IPL franchise KKR released Bangladeshi fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman from its squad following the instructions of BCCI. After this, Bangladesh refused to come to India for the T20 World Cup to be jointly hosted by India and Sri Lanka from February. All the group matches of Bangladesh are to be held in India only. On January 4, he wrote a letter to the ICC requesting that its matches be shifted out of India i.e. in Sri Lanka. For this he has cited ‘security concerns’ as the reason. ICC has rejected these concerns of Bangladesh as baseless.
AI generated infographic
Bangladesh stuck to its stand
No solution has been found yet in the discussions between ICC and BCB regarding this issue. Bangladesh is firm on its stand that it will not play World Cup matches in India. BCB officials showed a stubborn stand in the meeting with the ICC representative in Dhaka on Saturday last week. In another report of ESPN Cricinfo, it was revealed that ICC had rejected the demands of Bangladesh and had asked them to get information about the final decision from their side by January 21, after which ICC will give its final decision.
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Will ICC’s stance change due to Pakistan’s move?
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Cricket Board, possibly as a strategy to put pressure on the ICC, has written a mail to the ICC just a day before the board meeting. However, it is believed that this will not bring any change in the ICC’s stance. The ICC, in talks with the BCB last week, had bluntly said that the World Cup matches would not be shifted nor would Bangladesh’s group be swapped with any other team’s group.
Trying to put pressure on ICC?
Bangladesh had sought diplomatic and cricket-related support from Pakistan for its participation in the World Cup. Meanwhile, there was also news that Pakistan may also reconsider its participation in the T20 World Cup in support of Bangladesh. However, till now no official statement has come from PCB regarding this. However, on Tuesday, RevSportz had said in its report that PCB has termed the speculations about boycotting the World Cup as rumours. Quoting a source close to the PCB, the report said that Pakistan has no basis for boycotting the tournament.
