Staff Reporter:
Youth and Sports Adviser Dr. Asif Nazrul yesterday said there is no atmosphere to play the T20 World Cup (WC) in India after receiving the letter from the International Cricket Council (ICC) security team.
The ICC security team recently sent a letter to the Bangladesh Cricket board regarding the security risks Bangladesh could face if it goes to India to play the T20 World Cup.
Speaking to the pressmen at the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) Bhaban, Asif Nazrul said the ICC security team has mentioned three issues regarding the security risks of Bangladesh playing in India.
The ICC’s concern regarding Bangladesh’s security in the letter is that the security risk to the Bangladesh national cricket team will increase if Mustafizur Rahman is included in the Bangladesh team, if the sup-porters of the Bangladesh team walk around wearing the national jersey of Bangladesh and our national jersey and the third is that the closer the election comes, the more the security threat for the Bangladesh team will increase.
Asif Nazrul said this observation by the ICC’s security team has proven beyond a doubt that there is no situation for Bangladesh to play the T20 World Cup in India.
Terming the ICC’s statement as bizarre and absurd, the Advisor said: “If the ICC expects us to make a cricket team without our best bowler, our supporters will not be able to wear the country’s jersey and we’ll postpone the national election to play cricket there can be no more bizarre, unrealistic and unreasonable expectation than that. We believe that the extreme communal situation prevailing in India and the anti-Bangladesh environment prevailing, especially the continuous anti-Bangladesh cam-paign that has been going on for the last sixteen months, In view of this, it has become impossible for Bangladesh to play cricket in India.”
The Sports Adviser further said: “We believe that no one should have a monopoly on the game of crick-et. The fate of a game cannot be determined based on market management. If the ICC is truly a global organization, then it should give us the opportunity to play in the T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka. We’ll not accept any concession in this regard.”
Finally, the sports advisor said, “Where a player from our team does not have a playing environment, when the National Cricket Board of India – a national authority, says that he (Mustafizur) should not be played here, what greater proof is there before the ICC than this. This proves beyond a doubt that we
don’t have a playing environment there. There is no playing environment anywhere in India.”
