To start with, the caretaker government in Bangladesh has totally hung the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and their cricketers out to dry. It is learnt that on Thursday, when the government’s sports adviser Asif Nazrul met BCB president Aminul Islam Bulbul and some of the members of the T20 World Cup squad, he simply told them that Bangladesh would boycott the tournament if the ICC sticks to its stand of not altering the schedule and relocating their matches to Sri Lanka. No feedback was taken, any counter views were not allowed.
A day before, the ICC Board met virtually to decide on the BCB’s plea to move their matches at the upcoming T20 World Cup, starting February 7, out of India due to “security” concerns. The motion was put on vote, and the BCB lost it 14-2, only the Pakistan Cricket Board offering the token support. The BCB were told to convince the Bangladesh government about playing in India and come back within 24 hours with their decision. On Friday, Nazrul and Bulbul spoke to reporters in Dhaka and reaffirmed their position of not travelling to India. But interestingly, it is learnt that the BCB hasn’t yet communicated it to the ICC.
The situation is simple — if Bangladesh pull out of the ICC showpiece, Scotland will replace them. That said, nobody wants a participating team to be thrown out of a World Cup. There’s hope against hope for an eleventh-hour change of heart from Bangladesh’s side.
If it doesn’t happen, then Bangladesh would be staring at a financial apocalypse. Upfront, the Bangladesh cricket might lose something in the range of BDT 400 crore (around $32.7 million). T Sports, the official broadcaster of the tournament in the country, might take a BDT 300 crore hit, while the advertising companies are expected to lose BDT 100 crore. The Bangladesh government has decided not to telecast the 2026 IPL in the wake of Mustafizur Rahman’s removal from the tournament and it means that T Sports, which has acquired rights from Viacom, is going to lose another BDT 200 crore.
Now the ICC revenue distribution part… If Bangladesh don’t turn up for the World Cup, they will breach the participation clause, which could lead to losing a chunk of the ICC revenue share, as they are interlinked. Their share is 4.47%, roughly $26.7 million annually. Also, the BCB will miss out on the appearance money and their share of the prize money.
Long-term, there’s the small matter of India’s proposed tour of Bangladesh in August-September, and the broadcast rights value of that series is several times higher than other bilateral cricket affairs. As things stand, India will not tour Bangladesh as a counter measure. But that’s for the future. Bangladesh will go to polls on February 12 and if a new, stable government comes to power, the India-Bangladesh relations might see a shift.
For the moment, Bulbul stares at the ignominy of being the first BCB president under whom the national team might pull out of an ICC event.
