BCB seeks Bangladesh army’s assurance for hosting women’s T20 World Cup

The Bangladesh Cricket Board has reached out to the country’s army chief for security assurance in order to conduct the women’s T20 World Cup 2024.

There has been political turmoil in the country after the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The country is in a state of emergency, imposed by the country’s interim government. The cricket board wrote to Bangladesh Army Chief of Staff General Waker-Uz-Zaman on Thursday seeking security assurance for conducting the tournament, which is slated to begin from September 27 with the warm-up games.

It is learnt that the International Cricket Council (ICC) has been closely monitoring the situation in Bangladesh. The ICC is also considering other host options if the situation arises to move the tournament out of Bangladesh. They are likely to go for a country in a similar time zone as Bangladesh, like India, UAE or Sri Lanka. The tournament is slated to begin from October 3 and will go on until 20th. Sylhet and Mirpur have been chosen as the two Bangladesh cities to host the marquee event.

Turmoil in Bangladesh
On August 8, Thursday, Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus-led interim government was appointed to run the country’s affairs till fresh elections are conducted. After Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s departure from the country, several board directors, including BCB president Nazmul Hassan, were also forced to leave Bangladesh as they were backed by Hasina’s party, the Awami League.

BCB umpiring committee chairman Iftekhar Ahmed Mithu said, “We are trying to host the tournament.” “To be honest, there are not too many among us present in the country and on Thursday (August 8) we have sent a letter to the Army Chief regarding assurance about the security of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup as we have only two months in hand,” he said.

Will T20 World Cup happen in Bangladesh?
“ICC communicated with us two days back, and we replied that we will come back to them shortly.” “After the (interim) government is formed, we still have to give them assurance of security considering it cannot be given by the board or any anyone else apart from a law enforcement agency of the country and so we sent the letter and after getting written assurance from them (the Army), we will inform the ICC,” he added.

It is learnt that the ICC will wait until August 10 before making a decision on the venue of the tournament after assessing the on-ground conditions in Bangladesh.