NEW DELHI: Hours after standing firm on its demand to have its T20 World Cup matches moved from India to Sri Lanka, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has written another letter to the International Cricket Council (ICC), requesting that Bangladesh’s demand for a change of venue be referred to the ICC’s independent dispute resolution committee, TimesofIndia.com has learnt.
The committee, which consists of independent lawyers, resolves disputes related to ICC matters. The BCB hopes the ICC will respond to the request and refer the demand for a venue change to the Dispute Resolution Committee (DRC).
What is the Dispute Resolution Committee?
The ICC Dispute Resolution Committee is an independent arbitration body that resolves disputes connected to international cricket. It can hear cases involving the ICC, member boards, players, officials and related parties, once all internal remedies have been exhausted.
Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Operating under English law with proceedings seated in London, the DRC conducts confidential arbitration through independent panels. Its role is to assess the lawfulness and interpretation of ICC decisions, regulations and contracts, rather than act as an appeal forum.
DRC rulings are final and binding, with no right of appeal except on very limited procedural grounds.
What is Bangladesh’s stance?
Bangladesh has reiterated that its refusal to play the upcoming T20 World Cup in India is solely due to security concerns and is a sovereign decision.
Sports Adviser Asif Nazrul said on Thursday that there is no scope for Bangladesh to change its decision not to travel to India for the tournament.
“As the ICC has also not accepted Bangladesh’s request to change the venue, it now effectively means that Bangladesh will not be taking part in this year’s T20 World Cup,” Nazrul told reporters in Dhaka after meeting senior Bangladesh cricketers.
Nazrul also accused the ICC of failing to ensure justice by not considering Bangladesh’s request for a venue shift.
“Our security risk in playing in India has not changed at all,” he said. “This concern did not arise from any imaginary analysis or assumption. It arose from a real incident, where one of the best players of our country was forced to bow his head before extremists, and the Indian cricket board removed him from India, plainly speaking, asked him to leave.”
What is the ICC’s stand?
Earlier on Wednesday, the ICC rejected the BCB’s request to relocate Bangladesh’s matches from India and decided to keep the tournament schedule unchanged following a board meeting. The ICC also gave the BCB a one-day deadline to decide, after consulting the government, whether the team would travel to India.
“The ICC’s venue and scheduling decisions are guided by objective threat assessments, host guarantees and the tournament’s agreed terms of participation, which apply uniformly to all 20 competing nations,” the ICC said in a statement.
“In the absence of any independent security findings that materially compromise the safety of the Bangladesh team, the ICC is unable to relocate fixtures. Doing so would carry significant logistical and scheduling consequences for other teams and fans worldwide, and would also create precedent-related challenges that risk undermining the neutrality, fairness and integrity of ICC governance.”
Bangladesh are in Group C alongside England, Italy, West Indies and Nepal, and are scheduled to play their first three matches in Kolkata and their final game in Mumbai. They face West Indies on February 7, the opening day of the tournament.
What sparked the standoff?
BCB president Aminul Islam Bulbul revealed that Mustafizur Rahman’s removal from an IPL team due to security concerns triggered Bangladesh’s hardened stance against travelling to India.
Bulbul said Mustafizur was neither injured nor had he withdrawn from the IPL. The BCB hadn't revoked his No Objection Certificate either. “He was dropped due to security reasons,” Bulbul said, calling it a moment that raised serious red flags for Bangladesh cricket.
According to Bulbul, once the BCB learned of Mustafizur’s removal, it immediately contacted the ICC on January 4.
“We informed them of the situation and asked them to take it seriously,” he said. “If a player can be removed from a league due to security concerns, how can we ignore those same concerns for a World Cup?”
Bulbul added that the BCB proposed solutions rather than confrontation, citing past instances where neutral venues or hybrid models were adopted due to security issues in ICC tournaments.
“We asked the ICC to follow that logic,” he said. “Let us play the World Cup, but at a neutral venue like Sri Lanka or elsewhere.”
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