Three weeks, many narratives

A little over three weeks into the talks between the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and the International Cricket Council (ICC) regarding the former’s request to relocate Bangladesh’s T20 World Cup matches from India, where do both parties stand?

The answer to this question depends on whom you’re asking.

Yesterday, the BCB refuted reports from Monday, which claimed the ICC has set a deadline of January 21 for the board to decide whether it would send the team to India for the marquee event, also co-hosted by Sri Lanka.

“They [ICC delegation] told us that they will inform the ICC about the issues and will let us know about the decision later on. In regard to these talks, they haven’t mentioned a specific date or when they will let us know,” BCB media committee chairman Amzad Hossain told the media in a press briefing yesterday.

Earlier, after the meeting between BCB officials and an ICC delegation, the board had claimed in its official statement that the idea of swapping Bangladesh from Group C to B, in place of Ireland -- scheduled to play their group matches in Sri Lanka -- was floated in the meeting.

However, that very day, a Cricket Ireland official was quoted on media that it has received reassurance from ICC that they would not be swapped from their group.

This butting of differing narratives has been a constant ever since the BCB sent a letter to the ICC, requesting relocation on January 4.

Soon after Bangladesh’s request, some Indian media outlets claimed that the ICC was redrafting the tournament schedule. Later, the same outlets reported that the ICC had taken a hardline stance, setting a deadline for the BCB and preparing to announce Scotland as a replacement.

Throughout this period, the ICC has remained tight-lipped, offering no formal response, while the BCB has issued multiple press releases and briefed the media to clarify its position -- staying firm on its initial decision of not sending the team to India due to security reasons.

Beyond the noise of claims and counter-claims, the broader issue is how the ICC has historically dealt with such impasses.

The BCB requesting reallocation with a little over a month before the tournament, beginning February 7, put the ICC in a tough spot, but not an unfamiliar one.

Just like Bangladesh, Australia and India have also refused to send their teams for an ICC event, and the situations were handled very differently by the ICC.

When Cricket Australia announced it won’t compete in the 2016 U-19 World Cup in Bangladesh due to security threat and government directive just three weeks before the tournament began, the ICC named Ireland as replacement that very day.

Whereas when Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced it would not send its team to Pakistan for the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy in November 2024, demanding to play its matches in a neutral venue, the ICC proceeded by arranging multiple meetings with both parties, trying to broker a deal.

Eventually, it introduced a hybrid model for all ICC events hosted in either India or Pakistan till 2028. Under this arrangement, neither team would play matches in the other country for a total of four ICC events.

There are two key differences between Bangladesh and India’s refusals. The BCCI had pulled out months ahead of the tournament, while Bangladesh did it after the tournament schedule was announced.

However, in India’s case, the ICC brought in another country as hosts and also agreed to carry on with this cumbersome arrangement for future ICC events.

Courtesy of that arrangement, Sri Lanka emerged as a co-host for the upcoming T20 World Cup, where Bangladesh want to play their matches.

Switching Bangladesh to a different group would undoubtedly disrupt the preparations of other teams, but those same teams had no qualms in bearing the brunt of extra travel in ICC events to meet India’s demands.

With time running out, how ICC eventually handles this situation would either go down as another avenue for case study when measuring the imbalance that exists in the cricketing world or set a new example in this regard.