Bangladesh gamers rejoice a dismissal throughout their ICC Males’s U19 World Cup match in opposition to India on the Queens Sports activities Membership in Bulawayo on January 17, 2026. — ICC
KARACHI: The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) on Wednesday slammed the Worldwide Cricket Council (ICC) over what it referred to as an “unfair” schedule for the continued Males’s U19 World Cup, saying it hindered the nationwide workforce’s efficiency and led to an early exit.
The 2020 champions departed for Zimbabwe on January 6, with their warm-up match scheduled in Masvingo in opposition to Pakistan on January 10.
The aspect then launched into a near-four-hour journey to Harare for his or her subsequent follow match in opposition to Scotland, performed on January 13, just for each fixtures to be deserted resulting from rain.
Curiously, the ICC prohibited home air journey throughout this yr’s event, leading to Bangladesh travelling from Harare to Bulawayo – an almost nine-hour journey throughout monsoon season – by bus for his or her first two group-stage fixtures in opposition to India and New Zealand, respectively.
“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 again to Harare by bus for his or her match in opposition to america of America (USA) on January 23 earlier than heading again to Bulawayo once more by bus for his or her opening Tremendous Six recreation in opposition to England on January 26, which they misplaced and crashed out of the semi-final race.
Having already been eradicated from the semi-final competition, Bangladesh will as soon as once more head to Harare to function of their final Tremendous Sixes match in opposition to co-host Zimbabwe, scheduled to be performed 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 additional claimed requesting the ICC to maneuver their warm-up matches, however their plea was not heard by the governing physique.
“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.”
