New Delhi: A day after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) directed Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to release Bangladeshi pacer Mustafizur Rahman from its IPL squad, Dhaka took a major retaliatory decision in protest.
Bangladesh’s Youth and Sports adviser said on Sunday that the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has decided not to send the national team to India for the T20 World Cup, being co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka, from February 7.
According to the fixtures released by the International Cricket Council (ICC), Bangladesh are scheduled to play four Group A matches in India — three of those in Kolkata and one in Mumbai.
“Bangladesh will not go to India to play the World Cup, it was decided by the Bangladesh Cricket Board today. We welcome this decision taken in the context of the radical communal policies of the Indian cricket board,” Bangladesh’s Youth and Sports adviser Asif Nazrul wrote on his official Facebook page.
BCB took the decision and wrote to the ICC after a meeting on Sunday attended by 17 board directors.
“We have sent a letter to the ICC requesting that our match be moved from India to Sri Lanka. If they have said they cannot provide security to one of our players, how will they ensure the security of our entire team? That is why we will not go there to play,” BCB director Khaled Mashud Pilot was quoted as saying by the Business Standard.
Bilateral relations between India and Bangladesh have plummeted since last year after ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled to India. There are strong anti-India sentiments currently in Bangladesh after the killers of prominent student leader Osman Hadi were alleged to have escaped to India through Meghalaya border, a charge refuted by BSF.
India, on the other hand, have expressed deep concern over a string of attacks on minority Hindus in Bangladesh.
The ICC will now have to take a call on the Bangladeshi request to reschedule their matches in Sri Lanka, a la Champions Trophy last year when Pakistan’s fixtures were slotted in the UAE.
