The standoff between the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and the ICC shows no signs of ending as Bangladesh Cricket has made some new allegations against the International Cricket Council.
Following Mustafizur Rahman’s exclusion from the Indian Premier League 2026 (IPL 2026), the Bangladesh Government-backed Bangladesh Cricket Board refused to travel to India to play the ICC T20 World Cup 2026, starting on February 7. BCB said that they are concerned about the safety of their players in India. Since he remained firm on his stance, the ICC ruled him out of the specific tournament and named Scotland as his replacement.
Bangladesh made new allegations against ICC
Following the incident involving Bangladesh’s senior cricket team, their Under-19 team also raised an issue in view 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.
Following his poor performance at the Under-19 World Cup in Zimbabwe, game development coordinator Habibul Bashar accused the ICC of keeping him on a busy schedule, which could have affected his on-field performance. The performance of Bangladesh cricket team was badly affected due to their poor performance on the field and also due to rain.
Bangladesh had to play under a strict schedule given by the council
Bashar claimed that the council suddenly changed the schedule without informing him before the tournament. After the campaign started, they had to work as per the given schedule. He also claimed that he requested the ICC to move its practice games so that players could avoid long journeys.
“We informed them [of the travel burden] Before the tournament starts. We asked them to postpone our practice games to avoid traveling back and forth, but they did not 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 its two warm-up matches in Masvingo and Bulawayo for the two group stage matches. These two cities are about a 4-hour drive apart. Bashar claimed that the schedule was later changed.
ICC suddenly changed the schedule!
“The schedule was very unfair to us. During the initial schedule, we had to play our two practice matches in Masvingo and travel to Bulawayo, which is a four-hour drive, for our opening two group-stage matches. Later, they [ICC] Suddenly the schedule changed, and that meant we had to play our two practice matches at different venues, traveling back and forth,” he said.
It is worth noting that the India Under-19 team remained in Bulawayo for all their matches, and Australia played all their practice matches and group-stage matches in Windhoek. England held their practice matches in Harare and Bulawayo, while they had to travel to Harare to play their entire group-stage games.
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