In a committee meeting on Wednesday, the ICC have decided to reject Bangladesh's request for a change in venue for the Men’s T20 World Cup in India. BCB had cited security reasons for not travelling and had asked for their games to be moved to Sri Lanka. The world body convened for a meeting and after assessing all security threats decided to proceed as scheduled with Bangladesh’s matches to be played in India.
The decision was taken after considering all security assessments conducted, including independent reviews, all of which indicated there was no threat to Bangladesh players, media persons, officials and fans at any of the tournament venues in India.
"Over the past several weeks, the ICC has engaged with the BCB in sustained and constructive dialogue, with the clear objective of enabling Bangladesh’s participation in the tournament. Despite these efforts, the BCB maintained its position, repeatedly linking its participation in the tournament to a single, isolated and unrelated development concerning one of its player’s involvement in a domestic league," an ICC spokesperson said in a statement.
The ICC management also engaged in a series of correspondences and meetings with the BCB in a bid to resolve the impasse, sharing detailed information on the event security plan, including layered federal and state law-enforcement support. The world body believes the Mustafizur Rahman incident has no bearing on the tournament’s security framework or the conditions governing participation in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
The ICC meeting comes after Bangladesh sports adviser Asif Nazrul maintained the country's stance of not travelling to India for the tournament next month.
Nazrul speaking to reporters suggested that the country won't bow down to pressure from either BCCI or ICC.
"If the ICC bows to pressure from the Indian Cricket Board and tries to impose pressure on us by setting unreasonable conditions, we will not accept those conditions," Nazrul said.
