New Delhi, Feb 12 (IANS) Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) chief Animul Islam has confirmed that he will travel to Colombo on February 15 to watch the high-voltage T20 World Cup 2026 clash between archrivals India and Pakistan at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Thursday.

The BCB chief has also informed that representatives from all five major Asian teams, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka, will be present and engage in a dialogue.

Speaking to the Bangladesh newspaper Pratham Alo, Islam said the invitation for the match has come from the ICC and is part of a broader plan to bring all the stakeholders together.

“The ICC has made a decision. The major stakeholders of the ICC are these five Asian countries. For the India-Pakistan World Cup match on the 15th, they want representatives of all five Asian countries to be present at the ground together, watch the match together, and talk to one another,” he said.

The development came after the relations between the Indian cricket board (BCCI) and the BCB deteriorated after BCCI asked Mustafizur Rahman to be released from the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in IPL. In retaliation, BCB requested the ICC to shift the matches from India to Sri Lanka, but the governing body rejected the request, which led to Scotland replacing Bangladesh in the multinational tournament.

However, the ICC and BCB engaged in positive talks after the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) decided to boycott the India match in solidarity with Bangladesh’s removal from the tournament.

After the talks, the ICC decided that no action would be taken against Bangladesh for refusing to adhere to the T20 World Cup schedule, while Pakistan agreed to play their match against India.

It is also decided that Bangladesh will host an ICC event between 2028 and 2031, which Animul expects to be the ICC Men’s Under-19 World Cup in 2028.

Islam said the board will prepare a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to ensure that the assurances are fulfilled.

“We will also enter into an agreement. The agreement will be line by line, an MoU-type document, so that there is no uncertainty,” said Islam. “You know that earlier, when we held the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Annual General Meeting in Dhaka, a similar issue arose. There as well, we prepared an MoU-type document so that no one could ever deviate from the contract in any way,” he added.

–IANS

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