Bangladesh had decided not to participate in the Twenty20 World Cupmatches scheduled in India due to safety concerns regarding their players in the face of political and societal tension between the two neighbor nations.
It was confirmed by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) that the country’s team will not be attending the mega cricketing meet to be held from 7 February to 8 March. India and Sri Lanka will jointly stage the meet. Initially, Bangladesh was to play its matches in the group stage at Kolkata.
The BCB, in their statement, said that this decision has been made after assessing the current situation and based on the advice given by the Bangladesh government. Also, a formal request has been made by the BCB to the International Cricket Council (ICC) for transferring the matches involving Bangladesh to any other destination other than India.
Asif Nazrul, an advisor to sports ministry, openly supported this and stated that given current situations, Bangladesh wouldn’t be involved in any of the matches being organized in India. He was disappointed by what he called a hostile environment and continued to say that he had asked the cricket board to consider Sri Lanka as an alternative destination.
In the last few months, the relationship between the two countries has gone down the drain. The murder of Dipu Chandra Das, a Hindu factory worker in Bangladesh, who was attacked by a mob in Mymensingh after supposedly insulting Prophet Muhammad, has given rise to tensions between the two countries. The incident led to protests in India, including demonstrations outside the Bangladesh high commission in New Delhi. Subsequently, twelve individuals were arrested for their involvement in the murder.
Political conflicts have also become more severe since the former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled to India during the unrest in her country.
The cricketing crisis reached new heights when the fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman of Bangladesh was freed from his Indian Premier League (IPL) contract due to the request of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The Kolkata Knight Riders acknowledged his release on Saturday, even though they had already secured him for 92 million Indian rupees (around $1 million) at last month’s auction — the highest-ever fee in the IPL for a Bangladeshi player.Following Mustafizur’s release, the BCB held an emergency meeting before deciding to request the relocation of their World Cup fixtures. Nazrul said the board felt that if an individual Bangladeshi player could not compete safely in India, the national team could not be expected to do so either.
As per the cricket site Cricbuzz, the BCB is wanting to get a formal clarification from the BCCI about the decision to let Mustafizur go.
The ICC had already changed the venue of some matches because of the political tensions, the most famous case being the one when the ICC allowed India to hold its Champions Trophy matches in the UAE when relations with the host country Pakistan deteriorated last year.
Bangladesh was initially set to play the West Indies, England, and Italy in Kolkata, and then finalize their group stage against Nepal in Mumbai.
