Bangladesh national cricket team must improve their one-day ranking by December 2017 or face a qualifying round in the ICC World Cup 2019, said a Bangladesh Cricket Board official, removing all recent confusion regarding the issue. The confusion was created as the BCB president, Nazmul Hasan, said no such decision was taken in the recent International Cricket Council meeting in Dubai.
A BCB official, preferring not to be named, said the decision was in fact taken at the ICC meeting in 2011 in Hong Kong when Nazmul’s predecessor AHM Mustafa Kamal and late chief executive officer Manzur Ahmed represented Bangladesh.
‘The decision was simple,’ he said. ‘In 2019, only 10 teams will play in the World Cup. The top eight teams in the ranking in December 2017 will get an automatic entry and the remaining two teams will be selected through a qualification round.’
Later in the ICC annual conference in 2013, it was decided that the qualifying round will be held in Bangladesh in 2018.
Bangladesh are currently ninth in the one-day rankings but not too far behind the number eight team.
In 2011 during the World Cup at home they were separated from number eight West Indies by a fraction, so the BCB did not feel the urgency of opposing the proposal.
However, the recent slide in one-day performance stoked up the issue as Bangladesh have few other ranking-related problems in Test and Twenty20 format.
The recent ICC decision to create a pathway for the Associate members to play Test cricket has also become as embarrassing news for Bangladesh.
The ICC said that the Test team ranked 10th in December 2017 will have to play a play-off series against the ICC Intercontinental Cup champions in order to give them a chance to prove their Test credentials.
The ICC also retained the format of World Twenty20 for the next edition, putting Bangladesh in the qualifying round again.
The BCB officials, however, argued that most of the decisions were taken based on commercial interest which Bangladesh cannot dictate.
‘All we can do is to improve our performance. If we are successful we will not face such question again. This is a kind of motivation for our players too,’ he said.
-With New Age input
