T20 Women's World Cup: ICC says monitoring situation amid political unrest in Bangladesh

Harmanpreet Kaur (Pic: AFP)

The ICC's internal security team is monitoring the unrest in Bangladesh, which has forced Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee the country, but it will wait and watch before deciding the fate of the T20 Women's World Cup scheduled there in October.

The T20 Women's World Cup is to be organised from October 3 to 20.

An interim government will be taking over in Bangladesh, Army Chief General Waqar-uz-Zaman announced on Monday in Dhaka amid massive protests against the Hasina government that claimed more than 100 lives in the last two days.

For the ICC, it is a simple "wait and watch" policy for now.

"The ICC has an independent security monitoring system across all its member nations. The situation is being monitored closely but with seven weeks left for the tournament to begin, it will be too early to comment whether the tournament will be shifted from Bangladesh," an ICC board member told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

Bangladesh has been witnessing fierce demonstrations over a controversial quota system that reserves 30 per cent of jobs for the families of veterans who fought the 1971 liberation war.

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The ICC source said a similar situation of unrest was there in Sri Lanka in March 2022 when protesters stormed former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa's official residence citing corruption and inflation.

However, the Australian cricket team had travelled there for a bilateral series in June.

The World in Bangladesh is scheduled to be held in Dhaka and Sylhet.

As of now, India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has "strongly advised Indian nationals against travelling to Bangladesh till further notice."

The BCCI has always gone by government advice in these kind of situations.

The ICC has contingency plans for unavoidable situations but Sri Lanka can be an option considering that the 2012 men's T20 World Cup was held there between September and October.

It will be interesting to see if the SENA countries (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia) send their women's teams to a country where security situation could remain vulnerable.

(With agency inputs)