Asif Nazrul, the Bangladesh government’s sports advisor, slammed the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Thursday for denying “justice” after refusing to shift the team’s T20 World Cup matches out of India to Sri Lanka.
His comments came after he made it clear that the Bangladesh government would not grant permission to the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) to travel to India for the upcoming 20-team tournament, where the side was slated to play all of its Group C matches in Kolkata and Mumbai.
Ever since Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman was released by the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on the orders of the BCCI, the BCB have been adamant in their demand not to play in India. However, the ICC refused to accept this call, telling the BCB on Wednesday that they had 24 hours more to take a final call on their participation.
The BCB President, Aminul Islam, and Nazrul then addressed the local media on Thursday, confirming that Bangladesh won’t tour India. While speaking to reporters, Nazrul claimed that neither the ICC nor the BCCI had made any effort to convince the BCB that their players are fully safe in India.
“I think we did not get justice from the ICC. Whether we will play in the World Cup or not is entirely a government decision. Nothing happened in India in the recent past that suggests things have changed there (security-wise). We hope ICC will give us justice,” Nazrul told reporters.
“All of us want to play the T20 World Cup because our players have earned this through hard work. But the security risk situation in India has not changed. The security concerns did not arise from speculation or theoretical analysis. They arose from a real incident, where one of our country’s top players was forced to bow to extremists, and the Indian cricket board asked him to leave India. Simply put, he was told to leave,” he added.
‘Made no effort’
The Bangladesh sports advisor then cited Rahman’s removal from the IPL, claiming that India was unable to provide security to one player, so how would they be able to do so for the entire travelling contingent?
“Now this ICC tournament is being held in India. No matter how much the ICC says there is no security risk, the ICC does not have its own country. The country where my player was not safe – and where the Indian cricket board, which is an extended arm of the government, failed or was unwilling to provide him security under pressure from extremists – that is the country hosting this tournament,” he said.
“Security will be the responsibility of that country’s police and security agencies. So what has changed since that incident that would make us believe that there will be no extremist flare-ups again? They could not protect Mustafizur – so what has changed? How can we be convinced that they can protect our players, journalists and supporters? The ICC has made no effort to convince us. They ignored the actual incident and only discussed their standard security procedures. They did not take a proper position on the actual grievance,” he added.
While addressing the media, BCB President Islam confirmed that the board would return to the ICC, hoping for a turnaround from the world body.
Speaking of Bangladesh, the squad was already announced for the World Cup. The side were slated to square off against England, Nepal, the West Indies and Italy in Group C.