CHENNAI: A day after reiterating their stance of not travelling to India for the T20 World Cup, Bangladesh Cricket Board have written to the ICC Dispute Resolution Committee to resolve the issue. However, per point 1.3 in Terms of Reference for the ICC Dispute Resolution Committee, they may not hear the issue as it will be an appeal to overrule the decision taken by the ICC board meeting on Wednesday. The final decision is yet to be made but it is understood that Scotland will be the team on standby, as reported by this newspaper four days ago.
What is an ICC Dispute Resolution Committee
It is a committee is chaired by Michael Beloff KC, and has five independent lawyers, an Independent Code of Conduct Commission Representatives, a Chair of Audit Committee, an Ethics Officer and a management support. The committee's responsibility is to "fairly and promptly" resolve any disputes that arise according to procedures appropriate to the nature of each dispute and in a manner
complementary to other methods of dispute resolution applicable to the activities of the ICC, its officers and directors, its Members and other relevant persons. It is established in order to help achieve that objective by providing independent panels to hear and resolve, by
arbitration, disputes within the established scope.
Why is Bangladesh-India issue different?
Unlike any other dispute between two member nations, the ICC board had already taken a decision to deny BCB's request to move matches out of India. On Wednesday, the board voted to uphold the original T20 World Cup schedule where Bangladesh was supposed to play in Kolkata and Mumbai.
The point 1.3 of the ICC document reads: No dispute may be submitted to the Committee which is expressly referred to other persons or bodies for resolution pursuant to the ICC’s Memorandum and Articles of Association or under any rules and regulations of the ICC, or by any contractual agreement binding upon the parties to the dispute. Further, no dispute may be submitted to the Committee unless the party wishing to submit the dispute has exhausted any applicable procedures and rights of appeal pursuant to the ICC’s Memorandum and Articles of Association or under any rules and regulations of the ICC.
The Committee shall not operate as an appeal body against decisions of the ICC or any decision-making body established under the ICC’s Memorandum and Articles of Association or under any rules and regulations of the ICC, but shall operate as the sole forum and procedure for challenges to the lawfulness of such decisions, with the Committee exercising a supervisory jurisdiction."
Why Bangladesh do not want to travel to India?
It all began after Mustafizur Rahman was dropped from the Kolkata Knight Riders IPL squad at the directive of BCCI. Indian cricket board (BCCI) secretary Devajit Saikia, while announcing the decision to release Rahman, had merely stated that it was being done because of "developments all around", without explaining the specifics. However, the decision was taken amid protests over inclusion of Rahman in the IPL especially after deteriorating diplomatic relationship between the two countries and targetted killing of Hindus in Bangladesh.