T20 World Cup: PCB officially writes to ICC endorsing support to Bangladesh over venue row

Amid reports of PCB halting all preparations for next month’s T20 World Cup in a move to back BCB’s stance against sending its cricket team to India over security concerns, the Pakistan Cricket Board has officially written to the apex body (the ICC) endorsing support to Bangladesh over the ongoing venue row. Following recent instances of chaos and regular attacks on the minorities in Bangladesh and India's retaliation to it, the country's sports advisor stood by his government’s stance of not sending their cricket team to India, having already communicated the same to the ICC numerous times and taking a 'no' for an answer each time.

On Tuesday (Jan 20), a day before the deadline ends for the BCB to take a final call on its team’s T20 World Cup future, the PCB sends out a clear message to the governing body and all other participating members by backing the BCB’s call not to travel to India, where they feel their players and support staff aren’t safe.

An ESPNcricinfo report claims that the ICC has called a Board meeting on Wednesday (Jan 22) to address this matter and come up with a solution, with the 20-team tournament close to two weeks away. However, it remains unclear if PCB’s email led to ICC scheduling a board meeting.

Although the timing of PCB’s email to the ICC could have raised eyebrows, the apex body is ‘highly-unlikely’ to accept BCB’s plea of Sri Lanka, the co-host alongside India, hosting all Bangladesh matches, like it’s doing in Pakistan’s case; that, although, that remains a different story. The ICC is clear about its stance and even conveyed the same message to the BCB during their recent meeting in Dhaka over the weekend.

The BCB, with its government support, is also unfazed by ICC’s verdict, sticking to its stance of sending the Bangladesh Team to India for the first showpiece event of the year. The ICC, however, even issued an ultimatum to Bangladesh, which its sports advisor has denied having any awareness of, to either continue with the original schedule (of playing its league matches in India, across two cities) or be ready to be replaced by the next highest-ranked non-qualified team, Scotland in this case.

Meanwhile, this move by the PCB has come on the back of week-long speculations around their involvement in this matter, which included unverified reports of Pakistan offering to host Bangladesh’s T20 WC matches without holding any staging rights, and also reviewing its participation in the World Cup.

Placed in Group C, Bangladesh has England, the West Indies, Nepal and the tournament debutants, Italy, as remaining members. Bangladesh is scheduled to play their first three league matches at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata and their final group game at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.