T20 World Cup: Top Bangla cricketers on edge at ongoing impasse

There is growing apprehension among Bangladesh cricketers about their future — both professional and financial — if their board refuses to back down from its stance of not travelling to India for the ICC T20 World Cup. The ICC (International Cricket Council) and BCB (Bangladesh Cricket Board), meanwhile, are trying to get themselves out of the tangle in the wake of an IPL (Indian Premier League) ban on Mustafizur Rehman thanks to the incensed political environment between the two neighbours.

The BCCI diktat to Kolkata Knight Riders last week to drop 'Fizz' from its roster was a kneejerk one, and it has expectedly cast its shadow on the T20 showpiece in India and Sri Lanka. There are less than three weeks to go for Liton Das & Co. to depart for India on 28 January, when they are initially supposed to be based out of Bengaluru to play two warm-up games against Namibia and Afghanistan before heading out to Kolkata to play their first three league games.

The word coming out of Bangladesh is that the ICC may make a formal announcement by late Friday or Saturday (10 January) as time is ticking, and the state of flux is not making official broadcasters Jio Hotstar happy either. This is the second occasion in just over a year when the run-up to a marquee ICC event (the earlier one being the ICC Champions Trophy) has been hampered by regional geopolitics in a climate where a hard fight was on to make ICC products marketable.

The respective governments in the Indian subcontinent have, either overtly or covertly, influenced their boards on all occasions. While the cricketing establishment in Bangladesh is being coerced by its interim government — with the decision of not travelling to India first announced by sports advisor Asif Nazrul on his X handle — it’s the cricketers who stand to lose.

The last straw was perhaps M. Nazmul Islam, a BCB director and chairman of its finance committee, branding former captain Tamim Iqbal an ‘Indian agent’ after the latter had urged the board to prioritise Bangladesh cricket amidst the nation’s ongoing geopolitical tensions and tottering cricketing ties with India.

This prompted the Cricketers’ Welfare Association of Bangladesh (CWAB) to issue a statement and distance itself from the official’s comments at a press conference on Friday. Mominul Haque, a senior international, slammed the BCB director: “The comment made by BCB director M. Nazmul Islam regarding former national captain Tamim Iqbal is completely unacceptable and insulting to the country's cricketing community. Such behaviour towards a cricketer is in direct conflict with the board’s responsibility and ethics.”

Echoing his remarks,  star paceman Taskin Ahmed said: “I believe that such remarks directed at a former cricketer of the country are not helpful in the interest of Bangladesh cricket. I hope the concerned authorities will consider the matter seriously and adopt a more responsible stance in the future.”

Tamim, the most successful opener across all formats for Bangladesh, had asked the BCB to be little more pragmatic as he felt that ‘’90-95 per cent of BCB revenue actually comes from ICC.’’

Media reports suggest that such aggressive posturing by BCB at the behest of their government has begun to hurt the cricketers – with sports equipment major Sanspareils Greenlands (SG) deciding to continue with several leading cricketers including Liton Das.

Meanwhile, the Indian government has broken its silence on the issue, saying it is ready to host and welcome all teams — including Bangladesh — in accordance with Olympic guidelines. “Once their government makes the stand clear or takes a final decision, only then will Indian authorities react,” sources told Times of India.

“The situation is different with Pakistan. There is a specific sports policy for them. India will not engage in any bilateral sports with Pakistan anywhere in the world. Nor will teams across sporting disciplines travel to each other’s nations for one-on-one events. The BCCI and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) have their own understanding of playing at neutral venues even in multilateral sports events,” sources added.