Ultimatum to Bangladesh: Play in India or be replaced by Scotland

MUMBAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has made it clear that the Bangladesh cricket team must come to India if it wants to play in the Twenty20 World Cup starting early next month. The decision was announced in an online ICC board meeting today. The ICC stated that there will be no threat to Bangladesh players, fans or media personnel coming to India from any of the tournament venues.

Among the 15 directors who attended the meeting, except for the Pakistan board, all others demanded that another team replace Bangladesh, as they were not ready to travel to India due to security reasons. Most of them were of the opinion that Scotland should travel to India based on the ICC rankings. The crucial meeting was convened today after Pakistan raised objections.

The ICC has given Bangladesh one more day. "The decision was taken after considering all security assessments conducted, including independent reviews, all of which indicated there was no threat to Bangladesh players, media persons, officials and fans at any of the tournament venues in India," the ICC said in a statement.

BCB had written to the ICC on January 4 stating that it would not send the team if the T20 World Cup was held in India. The ICC has given Bangladesh an ultimatum after the uncertainty that has been going on for the third week. Bangladesh is in Group C of the World Cup. The team has matches in Kolkata on February 7, 9 and 14 and in Mumbai on February 17. The BCB is demanding that this be shifted to Sri Lanka.