Kumar Bahukhandi
ICC’s selection of Scotland has ended the month-long suspense after Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) repeatedly insisted that their matches be shifted to Sri Lanka.
New Delhi : The ICC has pushed Bangladesh out of the upcoming T20 World Cup, bringing in Scotland after BCB refused to let its team travel to India citing security concerns in the wake of Mustafizur Rahman’s ouster from the IPL.
Scotland’s entry ended the month-long suspense after Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) repeatedly insisted that their matches be shifted to Sri Lanka and even suggested their group being swapped with Ireland.
The Irish Cricket board however categorically dismissed the suggestion.
At the ICC Board meeting, Bangladesh were taken to the cleaners with an overwhelming 14-2 verdict in favour of the ‘Tigers’ travelling to India for their games.
The ICC gave the BCB a 24-hour deadline to change its stance but with Asif Nazrul being adamant, the cricket crazy nation’s hopes of playing the T20 World Cup went up in smoke.
It has been learnt that top ICC officials including chairman Jay Shah were in Dubai on Friday and late evening an e-mail was sent to BCB chairman Aminul Islam Bulbul informing him about global body’s decision.
“An e-mail was sent last evening to Bangladesh Cricket Board chairman intimating him that his board didn’t get back to ICC officially after the 24 hour deadline that was given to them to decide if they wanted to come to India,” an ICC source told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
“The BCB did a press conference in Dhaka before officially intimating the global body which is a violation of protocol. They have been categorically told that they are being replaced. Scotland is the new team in the World Cup.”
The ICC also intimated all the participating member nations separately about Bangladesh being dropped from the tournament.
Bangladesh Sports Ministry advisor Asif Nazrul had advised against national team travelling to India, citing security issues despite being given repeated assurances by the ICC.
Scotland will thus play their four group league games against West Indies (February 7), Italy (February 9) and England (February 14) in Kolkata followed by a game against Nepal in Mumbai on February 17.
The BCB, in a desperate measure, had also approached the Dispute Resolution Committee (DRC) of the ICC, unaware about the terms of reference of the sub-committee which is not allowed to hear an appeal against a decision made by its own Board of Directors.
While the mandatory independent security assessment threat for Bangladesh was “low to moderate”, same for all teams, anti-India hardliner Nazrul issued a diktat as representative of the interim government that the team cannot be allowed to travel to India in these circumstances.
In fact, the meeting between Nazrul and national team players turned out to be a one-way communication with Nazrul doing all the talking and telling the star cricketers that they won’t be allowed to participate in the tournament.
Financial implication for BCB
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The implications of this unceremonious ouster will also badly hit BCB’s coffers. The board will lose USD 500,000 participation fee that each nation gets. But the bigger potential loss will be ICC’s annual revenue.
The BCB annually receives close to USD 27 million (330 crore BDT) as a share of its revenue from the ICC and that itself constitutes around 60 percent of its annual budget.
Add to it, the loss of sponsorship money for not playing the tournament. Last but not least, with India now not travelling to that part of the world for a bilateral series means BCB will lose money which would have been equal to playing 10 bilateral series against other nations.
The only legal option that exists with BCB is to move to Court of Arbitration of Sports (CAS) in Lausanne but the tournament will still go on.
( Source -PTI)
