The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) took the decision after a meeting between the national team players and Youth and Sports Adviser Asif Nazrul. The BCB was given a 24-hour ultimatum: either agree to travel to India or risk replacement, as the ICC maintained there was no credible threat to the safety of their players, officials, or fans there.
However, taking a defiant position Bangladesh’s sports advisor Asif Nazrul, after a meeting with national team players, announced that the ICC’s position was not acceptable to them.
“While our cricketers have worked hard to qualify for the World Cup, the security risk regarding playing in India remains unchanged. This concern is not based on abstract analysis,” Nazrul said during a press conference on Thursday.
“We are not giving up hope yet; our team is ready. We expect the ICC to provide justice by considering our genuine security risks and allowing us to play in Sri Lanka,” he added.
The BCB, however, insisted that it is keen on playing the tournament, but not in India. The Bangladesh board also said that it will keep in touch with the ICC to seek an alternative to the long-standing impasse.
“We will continue to communicate with the ICC. We want to play the World Cup, but we won’t play in India. We will keep fighting. There were some shocking calls in the ICC Board Meeting. The Mustafizur issue is not an isolated single issue. They (India) were the sole decision makers in that issue,” Bangladesh Cricket Board President Aminul Islam Bulbul said.
“ICC had denied us our request to shift our matches away from India. We are not sure about the status of world cricket. Its popularity is going down. They have locked away 200 million people. Cricket is going to the Olympics, but if a country like us is not going there, it is ICC’s failure,” he added.
Bangladesh are due to play four games in India (three in Kolkata and one in Mumbai). The country raised security concerns after pacer Mustafizur Rahman was ousted from the IPL on BCCI’s instructions for unspecified “developments all around.”
As things stand, Bangladesh is likely to be replaced by Scotland for the tournament.