The standoff between the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and the ICC shows no signs of coming to a halt, as Bangladesh cricket has come up with some fresh allegations against the International Cricket Council.
After the ejection of Mustafizur Rahman from the Indian Premier League 2026 (IPL 2026), the Bangladesh Cricket Board, supported by the Government of Bangladesh, refused to travel to India to play the ICC T20 World Cup 2026, starting from February 7. BCB stated that they were worried about the safety of their players in India. As they remained firm on their stance, ICC threw them out of the elite tournament and named Scotland as their replacement.
Bangladesh levels fresh accusations against the ICC
After the incident related to the senior cricket team of Bangladesh, their U-19 team also raised an issue in the wake of Bangladesh’s early group-stage exit from the Under-19 World Cup 2026. They failed to qualify for the semi-finals of the tournament.
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After their poor run in the U-19 World Cup in Zimbabwe, game development coordinator Habibul Bashar accused the ICC of placing them on a hectic schedule, which could have affected their on-field performance. The Bangladesh cricket team’s run was brutally hit by their poor performances on the ground and the rain as well.
Bangladesh had to play under a tight schedule given by the council
Bashar claimed that the council had changed the schedule suddenly ahead of the tournament, without informing them. After the beginning of the campaign, they had to act according to the given schedule. He also claimed that they requested the ICC to move their practice games so that the players could avoid long journeys.
“We notified them [of the travel burden] before the tournament started. We asked them to move our practice games to avoid the back-and-forth travel, but they didn’t listen. Once the tournament starts, you can’t really change these things,” Habibul Bashar told The Daily Star.
In support of his claims, he said that the Bangladesh Under-19 team was scheduled to play two of their practice games in Masvingo and Bulawayo for two group stage matches. These two cities are about a 4-hour drive apart. Later, the schedule was changed, Bashar claimed.
ICC suddenly changed the schedule!
“The schedule was very unfair to us. During the initial schedule, we were supposed to play two of our warm-up matches in Masvingo and travel to Bulawayo, which is a four-hour drive, for our opening two group-stage matches. Later, they [ICC] suddenly changed the schedule, and it meant we had to play two of our warm-up games at different venues, travelling back and forth,” he said.
It is worth noting that the India U-19 team remained in Bulawayo for all their matches, and Australia played all of their warm-up fixtures and group-stage matches in Windhoek. England conducted their warm-up matches in Harare and Bulawayo, while they had to travel to Harare to play their entire group-stage games.
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