Women’s T20 World Cup: Hosts BCB seek Bangladesh army’s assurance

NEW DELHI: The head of the Bangladeshi army has been asked to provide security assurances by the Bangladesh Cricket Board for the women’s T20 World Cup, which is set to take place from October 3-20 in the midst of political instability in the nation following the removal of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The cities of Sylhet and Mirpur in Bangladesh will host the women’s T20 World Cup.
The Bangladeshi army chief of staff, General Waker-Uz-Zaman, has reportedly received a letter from the BCB asking for security assurance in order to host the event, according to Cricbuzz.
On September 27, the women’s T20 World Cup warm-up round is scheduled to start.
Following violent protests against the government that resulted in hundreds of deaths and former prime minister Hasina’s resignation and flight, the ICC has been keeping an eye on the situation.
It is anticipated that the ICC may choose to hold the competition in a different location that is in a comparable time zone, leaving Sri Lanka, India, and the United Arab Emirates as the options.
Along with several other board directors who were thought to have the support of the Awami League, the former PM’s party, is the current president of the BCB, Nazmul Hasan Papon, who has also left the nation.
However, a few other directors remain in Dhaka and hope that the tournament will not be shifted from Bangladesh.
BCB umpiring committee chairman Iftekhar Ahmed Mithu said, “We are trying to host the tournament.”
“To be honest, there are not too many among us present in the country and on Thursday (August 8) we have sent a letter to the Army Chief regarding assurance about the security of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup as we have only two months in hand,” he said.
“ICC communicated with us two days back and we replied that we will come back to them shortly.”
“After the (interim) government is formed, still we have to give them assurance of the security considering it cannot be given by the board or any anyone else apart from a law enforcement agency of the country and so we sent the letter and after getting written assurance from them (the Army), we will inform the ICC,” he added.