Bangladesh sports minister orders probe into T20 World Cup absence and will consult ICC on future of BCB

Bangladesh’s sports minister Aminul Haque will consult the ICC before taking a final decision on the future of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB). He also plans to appoint a second committee to investigate why Bangladesh could not participate at this year’s men’s T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.

On March 11, the sports ministry formed an investigation committee to look into allegations of irregularities, manipulation and abuse of power at last year’s BCB elections. The BCB retaliated on Monday, saying the formation of the committee amounted to interference on the Bangladesh government’s part.

Haque, a former Bangladesh football captain, said on Tuesday that once the five-member committee submitted its report – within 15 working days – he would discuss the matter with the ICC.

“We are all aware of direct interference from our previous government in the BCB elections last year,” he said. “I have spoken about it on a number of occasions. Following allegations from Dhaka clubs and the districts, we have formed an investigation committee. I will read their report, but my next step will come after I have spoken to the ICC.”

There were allegations of election engineering from Tamim Iqbal and a large group of Dhaka club officials when the elections were held. There were also accusations of interference against BCB president Aminul Islam even before the polls. In a signed letter sent weeks before the elections, Aminul had asked the sports ministry to change councillors from certain districts. Tamim had also alleged that the BCB had extended the deadline for filing nominations twice.

Haque said the investigators would examine the process through which district administrators changed their nominations before the elections.

“The investigation committee will speak to the BCB election commissioners, the current board president, BCB directors and the CEO. It will also get in touch with the district administrators who nominated the BCB councillors,” Haque said. “There is an allegation that many of these district administrators sent the name of a new councillor after having already nominated one, following receipt of a letter [from Aminul]. I believe there has to be a neutral investigation of these matters.”

On the T20 World Cup, where the BCB refused to send a team to India due to security concerns and after three weeks of negotiations, the ICC replaced Bangladesh with Scotland, Haque said, “We will try to find out why we didn’t go to the World Cup. We have to understand why our sports diplomacy fell short. We will form an investigation committee on this subject after Eid. We have to strengthen our sports diplomacy and make sure we don’t repeat this mistake in the future.”

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