BCB hits out at ICC for 'unfair' schedule after U19 World Cup exit

KARACHI: The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) on Wednesday slammed the International Cricket Council (ICC) over what it called an “unfair” schedule for the ongoing Men’s U19 World Cup, saying it hindered the national team’s performance and led to an early exit.

The 2020 champions departed for Zimbabwe on January 6, with their warm-up match scheduled in Masvingo against Pakistan on January 10.

The side then embarked on a near-four-hour journey to Harare for their subsequent practice match against Scotland, played on January 13, only for both fixtures to be abandoned due to rain.

Interestingly, the ICC prohibited domestic air travel during this year's tournament, resulting in Bangladesh travelling from Harare to Bulawayo – a nearly nine-hour journey during monsoon season – by bus for their first two group-stage fixtures against India and New Zealand, respectively.

To prevent players from getting tired, the BCB instead arranged and funded an internal flight for the group-stage matches in Bulawayo, revealed development coordinator Habibul Bashar during an interview with a Bangladeshi news outlet.

"More than the approach, I think our calculations were lacking [against England and India]. But this [travel schedule] is something I want to highlight, even if people think I'm making excuses," Bashar was quoted as saying.

"To avoid the boys getting too tired before the India match, the BCB actually paid for an internal flight out of its own pocket because the bus journey was too long and direct flights were scarce," he added.

After their first two group-stage matches, Bangladesh travelled back to Harare by bus for their match against the United States of America (USA) on January 23 before heading back to Bulawayo again by bus for their opening Super Six game against England on January 26, which they lost and crashed out of the semi-final race.

Having already been eliminated from the semi-final contention, Bangladesh will once again head to Harare to feature in their last Super Sixes match against co-host Zimbabwe, scheduled to be played on Saturday.

"The schedule was very unfair to us. During the initial schedule, we were supposed to play two of our warm-up matches in Masvingo and travel to Bulawayo, which is a four-hour drive, for our opening two group-stage matches," Bashar continued.

"Later, they [ICC] suddenly changed the schedule, and it meant we had to play two of our warm-up games at different venues, travelling back and forth," he added.

Bashar further claimed requesting the ICC to move their warm-up matches, but their plea was not heard by the governing body.

"We notified them [of the travel burden] before the tournament started. We asked them to move our practice games to avoid the back-and-forth travel, but they didn't listen. Once the tournament starts, you can't really change these things."