Sports Desk : dhakamirror.com
The ICC Board voted in favour of having a replacement if Bangladesh don’t agree to play in India in the forthcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, according to a report published on the cricket website Cricinfo on Wednesday.
ESPN Cricinfo’s report claimed that the BCB has been allocated one more day by ICC to revert its stance on traveling to India for the tournament, beginning on February 7.
The BCB is yet to comment on the issue while filing this report.
On Wednesday, a board meeting attended by the directors of all full member countries of the ICC was held to take a decision on the impasse with the BCB over Bangladesh’s refusal to play in India.
The ICC has told the BCB to inform the Bangladesh government that if they continue to refuse to travel to India to play their matches in the 2026 T20 World Cup, then they will be replaced by another team at the tournament.
According to the report published on Cricinfo, that decision was followed by a vote, where the majority of the ICC Board was in favour of having a replacement. The BCB was also given one more day to come back to the ICC on its stance on playing in India.
If Bangladesh continue to refuse, then Scotland, who did not qualify and finished behind the Netherlands, Italy and Jersey at the European Qualifier, is more likely to replace Bangladesh in Group C at the World Cup.
Apart from the ICC chair Jay Shah, BCB president Aminul Islam, BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia, SLC president Shammi Silva, PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi, CA chairman Mike Baird, Zimbabwe Cricket president Tavenga Mukuhlani, CWI president Kishore Shallow, Cricket Ireland chair Brian MacNeice, Cricket New Zealand representative Roger Twose, ECB chair Richard Thompson, Cricket South Africa representative Mohammed Moosajee and Mirwais Ashraf, Cricket Afghanistan chairman, were also present at the meeting.
Also attending the meeting was top brass of ICC management, including Sanjog Gupta (CEO), ICC’s deputy chairman Imran Khawaja and Gaurav Saxena (General Manager, Events), and two Associate Member directors, Mubashshir Usmani and Mahinda Vallipuram.
