Bangladesh Cricket Board is ready to join hands with its counterparts in Pakistan and Sri Lanka to jointly host two ICC World Cups in the upcoming 2024-31 cycle of ICC events.
Cricbuzz had previously reported that the Pakistan Cricket Board was looking to form a consortium with SLC and BCB to stage the 2027 and 2031 World Cups respectively. In its 10 10th meeting of the board of directors on June 15, BCB too announced that it would express interest to solely host the 2025 Champions Trophy considering the board had the necessary infrastructure available to run the show while BCB president Nazmul Hasan confirmed that they the board will sit with neighbouring countries to co-host some ICC events.
Read: PCB to form consortium with SLC and BCB for hosting World Cups
BCB decided that it would participate in the host selection process for the ICC Men’s Events (2024-2031) and to expedite the process, a management team headed by the BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury was formed that included board directors Jalal and Ahmed Sajjadul Alam to oversee the procedure.
When asked about the PCB proposal, Jalal did not rule out the possibility of joining hands with the Asian neighbours given India was capable of hosting ICC events independently and that their only chance lay in tying up with the other two boards.
“We have already stated that we want to host the ICC Champions Trophy while we are ready to co-host other events with our neighbouring countries,” Jalal told Cricbuzz. “India is likely to bid to host events solely because they are capable as they have the infrastructure in place and in that case if we have to co-host we will have to do it with PCB and SLC,” he added.
Read: ICC Events, Contracts, ‘A’ Team, U19 & Clubs – 5 Key SLC Decisions
The ICC recently confirmed that 17 boards have expressed interest to stage events from 2024 to 2031, and revealed that submissions have been received from Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Ireland, Malaysia, Namibia, New Zealand, Oman, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies, UAE, USA and Zimbabwe. The deadline for placing the bids was June 30.
Meanwhile, the relationship between PCB and BCB has been normalized in the recent past after ICC’s former chairman Shashank Manohar broke the ice between the two boards and managed to convince BCB to tour Pakistan, who earlier refused to do so due to security reason.
Bangladesh toured Pakistan in 2020 and took part in three T20Is and a Test. PCB decided to abandon Bangladesh tour in 2017 after their counterpart refused to travel there though they toured Bangladesh in 2013 and 2015.
Source – Cricbuzz
