Bangladesh the Real Loser in the T20 World Cup Impasse

 

Bangladesh Team  (PC: BCB)

In the entire India–Pakistan–Bangladesh impasse, now paused for the moment, who is the real loser? Which country has lost the most, and why?

A rational deep dive, leaving aside emotion, suggests that the only real loser in all of this is the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB). Pakistan are playing the World Cup and will continue to do so. India–Pakistan matches are happening, and the ICC will ultimately lose nothing. The BCCI, by far the richest board in world cricket, does not even depend on ICC revenues and was never likely to be affected.

The associate nations would have felt the tremors, which is why the Emirates Cricket Board wrote the letter it did. Dialogue followed, and the final outcome has been positive for most. Bangladesh, however, are not playing the World Cup. Their players have lost out and are sitting at home watching Scotland take their place.

Aminul Islam  Bulbul rushed to Lahore to try and ensure that no further sanctions were imposed, but in hindsight even he would agree that the BCB could have protected its players’ interests better. Securing one ICC tournament between 2028 and 2031 in return for missing a World Cup can never be adequate compensation. In the end, Bangladesh will realise they are the only ones who truly lost.

I was at Eden Gardens to watch West Indies play Scotland. The weather was perfect, the build-up relaxed, and the contest competitive. But something was missing: the Bangladesh fans. They would have turned every ball into a spectacle. A win would have been celebrated as if there were no tomorrow; a defeat would have led to every player’s parentage being questioned.

That madness – that passion – was absent despite a crowd of over 14,000. Many fans had already spent money planning travel and booking tickets; for them, it was meant to be a family holiday. They are the ones who missed out because of political obstinacy from the likes of Asif Nazrul and his ilk.

Bangladesh goes to the polls in a day, and there is palpable restlessness. Media reports suggest widespread anger, with violence becoming increasingly routine. While international journalists and observers are in the country to monitor the elections, there is also a section of people who are missing the action unfolding in India.

The team needed to be here. They needed to play – for the fans and for the country. Bangladesh may evade sanctions and avoid financial penalties, but nothing will give the players back their chance to play in a World Cup. That is what politicians need to understand. For them, it may just be a tournament; for players and fans, it is far more than that.

The BCB could have taken up the Mustafizur Rahman-IPL issue and rallied support against the BCCI. Instead, turning it into a fight against the ICC and world cricket was the worst blunder possible. As stated at the outset, there is only one real loser in this saga – and that is Bangladesh cricket.

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Also Read Politics, Posturing and the Inevitable India–Pakistan Match

The post Bangladesh the Real Loser in the T20 World Cup Impasse appeared first on Sports News Portal | Revsportz.



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