We didn't get justice from ICC: Bangladesh sports advisor

 

Asif Nazrul, the Bangladesh government's sports advisor, on Thursday said that the ICC and the BCCI made no effort to convince the Bangladesh Cricket Board of the security for their players in the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup, scheduled to be hosted in India and Sri Lanka. He also added that they did not deliver justice to their plea of shifting matches to Sri Lanka.

On Wednesday, the ICC rejected Bangladesh'splea to relocate their venues from India to Sri Lanka, and instead gave the Bangladesh Cricket Board 24 hours to make a decision on their participation. The ICC has also kept Scotland as a standby if Bangladesh eventually doesn't agree to travel to India to take part in the tournament.

Nazrul, who had a meeting with national cricketers on Thursday, told reporters that they are not ready to change their stance. "The purpose of the meeting was simply to explain to the players why the government took this decision and give them the context. I believe they understood. That was the purpose - nothing else.

"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."

He went on to add: "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.

"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.

"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 real incident and only talked about their standard security procedures. They did not take a proper position on the actual grievance.

"Even the Indian government made no effort to convince us by saying the incident involving Mustafizur was isolated, or that they were sorry, or that they were taking steps. They made no effort to contact us, no effort to reassure us about the safety of our journalists, spectators, and players. Therefore, there is no scope for changing our decision.

Aminul Islam, the president of BCB, added, "A world organisation cannot impose a 24-hour ultimatum. We will keep fighting.

"Bangladesh is a cricket-loving nation. If a country of nearly 200 million people misses the World Cup, the ICC will lose a huge audience. Cricket is entering the Olympics in 2028, Brisbane in 2032, and India is bidding for 2036. Excluding a major cricket-loving country like Bangladesh would be a failure. We are still fighting. Our only demand is to play the World Cup - but not in India. We want to play in Sri Lanka or another neutral venue. Our team is ready."