The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has reportedly extended support to Bangladesh’s refusal to play its T20 World Cup matches in India over "security concerns", communicating its position to the International Cricket Council (ICC).
The ICC Board is scheduled to meet on Wednesday to take a final decision on Bangladesh’s participation in the T20 World Cup, including whether the team will travel to India for the tournament, which begins on February 7.
Bangladesh are slated to play all four of their group-stage matches in India, with the first three scheduled in Kolkata and the remaining match in Mumbai. However, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), backed by the country’s government, has remained firm in its stance and has sought a shift of its matches to co-host Sri Lanka.
Ahead of the ICC meeting, the PCB wrote to the global governing body expressing support for the BCB’s position, citing political instability in the region. The letter was copied to all ICC Board members, according to 'ESPNCricinfo'.
Despite multiple rounds of discussions between the ICC and the BCB — including a meeting held in Dhaka last weekend — neither side has shifted its position. While the ICC has maintained that the tournament should proceed as scheduled, the BCB has reiterated that it cannot send its team to India.
The PCB has not issued any public statement on the matter, though Board sources said the Bangladesh government had reached out to Pakistan seeking support at the ICC level.
Under a hybrid model agreement with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the ICC, Pakistan will play all its matches in Sri Lanka until 2027.
The situation involving Bangladesh escalated after the Kolkata Knight Riders released pacer Mustafizur Rahman following a directive from the BCCI that referred to "recent developments all around". In the aftermath, the Bangladesh government banned the broadcast of the Indian Premier League, and the BCB formally informed the ICC of its decision not to play World Cup matches in India.