Bangladesh Cricket Board is putting its effort to keep the upcoming Women’s Twenty20 World Cup in Bangladesh as uncertainty looms on the fate of the global tournament’s hosts after the recent political turmoil in the country.
In this regard, BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury and seven other board directors - Akram Khan, Jalal Younus, Mahbub Anam, Khaled Mahmud Sujon, Ahmed Sajjadul Alam Bobby, Kazi Inam Ahmed and Iftekhar Rahman - met with the newly appointed adviser of the interim government for the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Asif Mahmud Sajeeb Bhuiyan Sunday.
Initiatives are required from the ministry level, alongside the BCB, at this moment as well as negotiations with the participating countries regarding ensuring security and other issues before Bangladesh prepares to host the world event, scheduled to be held from October 3-20 in Dhaka and Sylhet.
It was learnt that four countries - Australia, England, India and New Zealand - have imposed advisories for their citizens for traveling to Bangladesh.
The International Cricket Council has already communicated with the BCB about the future of the multi-nation women’s tournament.
Reports also emerged that ICC looked for alternative back-up options in the United Arab Emirates, India and Sri Lanka.
BCB is in jeopardy due to the unrest in the country triggered by the student protest against the just dissolved Sheikh Hasina government with board president Nazmul Hasan currently in hiding along with a few other board directors.
But a few other influential board directors are trying to normalize the situation, by continuing BCB’s regular works and taking necessary steps to make sure that Bangladesh can successfully organize the 10-team global event.
“We talked to BCB about the Women’s T20 World Cup. Among the agendas, the most important is to ensure security, there is some work to be done in that regard. Today I will talk in details about this with Yunus sir at Jamuna (residence of Dr Muhammad Yunus, chief adviser of the interim government). He is a sports lover, he will assist us on this matter,” said Asif Mahmud to the media Sunday.
“We will ensure foolproof security, some countries have travel-related restrictions, let’s see how we can solve those. There are a few infrastructural issues as well. But the honorable secretary provided assurance that with time those will be taken care of.”
He added: “The person who holds such an important position as the board president, he is unavailable now. But the BCB is a federation within the ICC so we cannot just take a decision. The BCB directors will look into this matter, how to solve this issue as per ICC guidelines. They will let us know if anyone needs to be recruited in the interim for this, we will keep the process ongoing.”
Bangladesh teams are currently busy with their international schedules with the national men’s side set to depart for Pakistan Monday for the two-match Test series.
Bangladesh A team are already in Pakistan for their month-long series and the Bangladesh High Performance side are now in Australia playing the Top End T20 Series.
