Bangladesh Seeks 48 Hours to Decide on T20 World Cup Participation in India

BCB officials, on request not to be named, told Telecom Asia Sport on Wednesday, hours after the ICC rejected Bangladesh's plea to relocate their matches from India after the BCB failed to provide much support, except from the Pakistan Cricket Board, during the voting in the virtual meeting that was attended by 16 members.

The ICC issued a final deadline to Bangladesh as the BCB has 24 hours to decide whether they will travel to India to play their matches in India during the T20 World Cup to be played from February 7 to March 8. If they fail to do so, Bangladesh are likely to be replaced by Scotland in the competition.

"The Bangladesh players want to play the World Cup. The Bangladesh government wants Bangladesh to play in the World Cup. But we don't think India is safe for our players. We asked them to shift the matches to Sri Lanka. We said that we can switch with Ireland or Zimbabwe. It would have been the easiest way, but Sri Lanka said that they don't want a new team in their group," a BCB official told www.telecomasia.net regarding the discussion in the ICC Board meeting held virtually.

''We told them that after the vote, we want one last chance to tell our government, and that they insisted it's a valid point and gave me 24 or 48 hours to get back to them."

"We don't want to put pressure on the government. We know the ICC denied us, but we will talk to the government one more time and later will inform the government of the feedback to the ICC," the official told www.telecomasia.net.

The report quoted the official as saying the government will take all options into consideration before reaching a final decision. "You must remember that a government doesn't only consider the well-being of the players, but they take into consideration everything before making a decision," the source said.

Bangladesh officials held talks with ICC officials in Dhaka over the impasse over the weekend, but no agreement was reached after BCB requested the ICC to shift their matches out of India after BCCI directed IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders to release Mustafizur Rahman from their squad for the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 amid prevailing political tensions between the two countries.

The website claimed that BCB officials had already got in touch with high-ups in their government to inform them about the latest updates after the ICC meeting and take their directives before making the final call.

- IANS