BCB chief Aminul Islam to be in Colombo for Indo-Pak T20WC; ice-breaker meet with BCCI likely

Bangladesh Cricket Board chief Aminul Islam says he will be in Colombo to watch the India-Pakistan T20 World Cup clash on Sunday where he expects to break ice with the BCCI after tense exchanges over the past few weeks. Speaking to Bangladesh newspaper 'Pratham Alo', Islam said the invitation for the high-profile game has come from the ICC. ''The ICC has taken a decision. The major stakeholders of the ICC are these five Asian countries and for the India-Pakistan World Cup match on the 15th, they want representatives of all five Asian countries to be present at the ground together, watch the match together and talk to one another,'' Islam said. India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan form the Asian block in the world body. Asked if the meet could be an opportunity to end tensions with the BCCI, Islam said, ''You can consider it as something like that.'' The BCCI-BCB strife started after the Indian Board ordered the release of Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman from the IPL contract with Kolkata Knight Riders for unspecified ''developments all around.'' It was widely speculated that the move was triggered by political violence in Bangladesh in which Hindus have been targeted. Bangladesh responded by refusing to travel to India for their World Cup matches citing security worries. However, the ICC, led by former BCCI secretary Jay Shah, rejected their concerns, describing the threat perception as low to moderate after its own assessment. Bangladesh were eventually replaced by Scotland in the tournament after refusing to budge from their position despite lengthy discussions with the world body. Their omission led to the Pakistan government announcing a boycott of the game against India as an expression of solidarity with Bangladesh. But the impasse was resolved after the BCB and the Sri Lankan government persuaded Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to withdraw the call. Following another round of discussions, the ICC decided not to penalise BCB for its previous stance and also allotted one ICC event to Bangladesh in the 2028-2031 cycle. Islam said the board will prepare a Memorandum of Understanding to ensure that the assurances are cast in stone. ''We will also enter into an agreement. The agreement will be line by line, an MoU-type document, so that there is no uncertainty,'' said Islam. ''You know that earlier when we held the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Annual General Meeting in Dhaka, a similar issue arose. There as well, we prepared a MoU-type document so that no one could ever deviate from the contract in any way. ''Similar discussions (regarding preparing the MoU) with the ICC are more or less finalised,'' he added.