Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Aminul Islam has decided not to travel to Colombo for the February 15 India-Pakistan match at the T20 World Cup.
This change comes after Aminul recently indicated he might attend the game to foster relations with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) following a meeting with representatives from the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and the International Cricket Council (ICC) in Lahore. The meeting aimed to address the deadlock caused by Bangladesh’s exclusion from the T20 World Cup.
Aminul played a key role in the discussions in Lahore, convincing Pakistan to drop their plan to boycott the February 15 match against India. The PCB had announced the boycott as a gesture of support for Bangladesh after the ICC rejected requests to relocate Bangladesh’s matches from India.
The ICC had formally invited Aminul to the match at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. However, he changed his plans after realizing that Bangladesh would not be participating.
“I spoke with Aminul Islam. Since Bangladesh isn’t in it, he said, ‘Why should I go there just to watch the match?’ So, he refused,” BCB umpires committee chairman Iftekhar Rahman told Cricbuzz. “Initially, he considered attending but later felt there was no point in going if Bangladesh wasn’t playing,” he added.
Aminul had previously mentioned that the ICC wanted its “major stakeholders” to attend the event in Colombo.
“The ICC has made a decision. The major stakeholders of the ICC are these five Asian countries (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan), and for the India-Pakistan match on the 15th in the World Cup, they want representatives of all five Asian countries to be present and interact,” Aminul was quoted as saying in the Bangladeshi newspaper Prothom Alo.
“You can consider it as an icebreaker between us,” he added.
