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The International Cricket Council’s (ICC) internal security team is keeping an eye on the chaos in Bangladesh as the country is scheduled to host the Women’s T20 World Cup in October. As per the previously scheduled schedule, Bangladesh is to host the Women’s T20 World Cup from October 3 to 20. The violence in Bangladesh forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee the country. Army Chief General Waqar-uz-Zama said on Monday that an interim government would take power in Bangladesh amid massive protests against the Hasina government in Dhaka. More than 100 people have lost their lives in the last two days in the violence spread in the country. The ICC is adopting a wait and watch policy on this issue.
An ICC board member said on condition of anonymity, “The ICC has an independent security monitoring system in all its member countries. The situation is being closely monitored, but there are seven weeks left for the tournament to start. In such a situation, it is too early to comment on whether the tournament will be shifted from Bangladesh or not.” Demonstrations are going on in Bangladesh demanding the abolition of the controversial reservation system. Under this, there was a provision to give 30 percent reservation in government jobs to the relatives of the fighters who took part in the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971. The ICC source said that there was a similar situation of unrest in Sri Lanka in March 2022 when protesters stormed the official residence of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, citing corruption and inflation.
The incident comes after the Australian cricket team travelled to Bangladesh for a bilateral series in June. The World Cup is scheduled to be held in Dhaka and Sylhet. India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has ‘strongly advised Indian nationals not to travel to Bangladesh until further notice’. The BCCI always follows the government’s advice in such situations. The ICC has contingency plans for unavoidable situations and in this case Sri Lanka or India could be an option. Sri Lanka hosted the 2012 men’s T20 World Cup there between September and October. It will be interesting to see if the SENA countries (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia) send their women’s teams to a country where the security situation may remain fragile.
