De Villiers calls Bangladesh’s WC exclusion a ‘bad look’ for cricket

South Africa great AB de Villiers said that Bangladesh’s exclusion from the upcoming T20 World Cup presents a “bad look” for cricket and that the situation should never have been allowed to reach such a stage.

Speaking during a Facebook Live session titled ‘360 Live’ on his official page, de Villiers was asked for his thoughts on Bangladesh being left out of the T20 World Cup.

“I don’t want to be biased with this one, I am going to be on the fence,” de Villiers said. He added: “It’s politics, and it’s personal. And I don’t have enough information; I am not well-enough educated about this point to make comments and statements about it.”

The International Cricket Council (ICC) last Saturday officially replaced Bangladesh with Scotland for the upcoming marquee T20 event, scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka and India from February 7, after rejecting the Bangladesh Cricket Board’s (BCB) request to relocate their matches outside India due to security concerns.

The final verdict followed weeks of a standoff between the ICC and the BCB. The issue stemmed from Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman being dropped by Indian Premier League franchise Kolkata Knight Riders on January 3 on instructions from the Board of Control for Cricket in India. A day later, on January 4, the BCB formally requested the ICC to move Bangladesh’s World Cup matches outside India, citing security reasons.

In its final statement, however, the ICC said that it found no “credible or verifiable security threat” to the Bangladesh national team in India.

De Villiers said the matter should never have escalated to this level.

“What I do know is that it’s sad, and that it should never get to a point where teams have to withdraw themselves from tournaments. I really feel that it’s sad and a bad look, and a bad take on our sport. And it should never get to this.

“Whoever is in control, whoever can make the decisions, just sort it out. I have spoken enough about it in the past -- I hate it when politics get so involved in cricket that it gets to a point like this. Really, really sad,” he added.