CHENNAI: After the board meeting on Wednesday, the International Cricket Council has decided to uphold the published match schedule for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, denying the request of the Bangladesh Cricket Board to switch their matches from India to Sri Lanka. The BCB has been given a day to adhere to the original schedule. Should Bangladesh decide not to participate, as reported by The New Indian Express, Scotland may replace them in Group C.
"The decision was taken after considering all security assessments conducted, including independent reviews, all of which indicated there was no threat to Bangladesh players, media persons, officials and fans at any of the tournament venues in India. The ICC Board noted that it was not feasible to make changes so close to the tournament and that altering the schedule under the circumstances, in the absence of any credible security threat, could set a precedent that would jeopardise the sanctity of future ICC events and undermine its neutrality as a global governing body," the ICC said in a statement on Wednesday.
It all began when Mustafizur Rahman was removed from the Indian Premier League. Kolkata Knight Riders had signed the pacer for Rs 9.2 crores and soon their owner and Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan came under criticism from some political parties and on social media. Following that, the BCCI told the franchise to release the seamer. And soon, the BCB informed the ICC of its decision to not travel to India for the World Cup.
The ICC and BCB have been engaged in multiple meetings over the last few days but the latter had stood their ground on not travelling to India for the World Cup citing security reasons. With the meeting hitting an impasse, the ICC board voted against Bangladesh's request on Wednesday.
"During this period, the ICC has shared detailed inputs, including independent security assessments, comprehensive venue-level security plans and formal assurances from the host authorities, all of which consistently concluded that there is no credible or verifiable threat to the safety or security of the Bangladesh team in India. Despite these efforts, the BCB maintained its position, repeatedly linking its participation in the tournament to a single, isolated and unrelated development concerning one of its player’s involvement in a domestic league. This linkage has no bearing on the tournament’s security framework or the conditions governing participation in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup," an ICC spokesperson said.
“The ICC’s venue and scheduling decisions are guided by objective threat assessments, host guarantees, and the tournament’s agreed terms of participation, which apply uniformly to all 20 competing nations. In the absence of any independent security findings that materially compromise the safety of the Bangladesh team, the ICC is unable to relocate fixtures. Doing so would carry significant logistical and scheduling consequences for other teams and fans worldwide, and would also create far-reaching precedent-related challenges that risk undermining the neutrality, fairness, and integrity of ICC governance," the spokesperson added.