New Delhi: The Bangladesh Cricket Board finds itself sinking further in trouble as their efforts to strike a hard bargain with the International Cricket Council are bearing no fruit.
After Mustafizur Rahman was removed from the Kolkata Knight Riders team ahead of the 2026 edition of the Indian Premier League, on instructions from the BCCI, the Bangladesh board had raked up the bogey of India being unsafe for the ICC T20 World Cup.
Everyone knows this is a knee-jerk reaction to Mustafizur being stopped from playing in India.
The BCB has tried to strike a hard bargain, despite the ICC trying to convince them there is no problem on safety and security for players in Kolkata, venue for the league matches. Even the most recent meeting held on Saturday saw a bizarre demand from Bangladesh, that their group be changed so that they can play their matches in the World Cup, starting on February 7, in Sri Lanka.
That would have meant, Ireland gets moved to another group. On Sunday, Ireland made it clear there was no change in their schedule and they were not going to accept any shifts. This puts Bangladesh in a precarious state. Their board faced problems at home last week, when even their own T20 league saw matches coming to a halt due to players’ protesting.
What is well-known, the Bangladesh board has no voice of its own and with national elections also coming up, they have to toe the government line. However, each passing day is an indicator, Bangladesh are losing time. There are two eventual possibilities, they refuse to come for the T20 World Cup, which will mean massive loss of money. In addition, they will also be censured by the ICC. The second possibility is, they wait till the last minute and then come to India with their tails tucked. Interestingly, Bangladesh has no support from any other nation on their unwillingness to travel to India suddenly.
What Pakistan had done was very different, insisting they will not play in India, after the Champions Trophy fracas last year. At that time, Pakistan as hosts had to settle for Dubai as a venue. Later, it was agreed upon, India and Pakistan would play only in a neutral country.
At present, Bangladesh are fooling themselves that they will be able to strike a hard bargain with the ICC.
Onlookers are convinced the loss of face for Bangladesh will be big if they do not travel to India. There is a lot of financial loss as well which they will incur. Needless to mention, the Bangladesh players have themselves slammed their board on being incapable of
raising money.