As Bangladesh withdrew from the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup due to government-directed security concerns in India, the International Cricket Council replaced the team with Scotland in Group C. ICC also rejected the accreditation applications of all Bangladeshi journalists who planned to cover the tournament, leaving the country’s sports media community in shock.
Despite Bangladesh’s withdrawal, Bangladeshi journalists were eager to cover the event. ICC’s sweeping rejection, however, came as a major disappointment.
While the Bangladesh Cricket Board was negotiating with ICC to relocate the venue outside India, specifically to co-host Sri Lanka, photojournalist Tanvin Anjum Tamim of The Daily Sun initially received approval for his accreditation. Surprisingly, even after ICC had approved his accreditation along with Indian and Sri Lankan visa letters, Tamim was later denied accreditation on 26 January.
Tamim, who also covered the last ODI World Cup in India, told Times of Bangladesh, “On the 17th, ICC approved my accreditation and confirmed it via email. They also issued visa letters for India and Sri Lanka. But today, at 2:52 PM, they sent a reply saying my accreditation has been rejected. This is a very strange decision. Now I am even concerned about whether they will grant our accreditation for upcoming ICC events.”
There was a time when Bangladesh was not part of ICC’s major tournaments, yet Bangladeshi journalists still gained accreditation abroad. Veteran sports journalist Arifur Rahman Babu, covering Bangladesh cricket for 34 years, recalled, “In 1996, when Bangladesh did not play in the World Cup and relations with Pakistan were difficult, and even though our government had changed, I, along with Utpal Suvro and Dilu Khandakar, covered the tournament. We covered the group stage, semi-finals, and final without restrictions.”
Babu, who is The current president of the Bangladesh Sports Journalists Association (BSJA) and special correspondent of Jaagonews24.com further expressed his disappointment, “I saw the news. I am shocked and stunned. Even when Bangladesh did not participate, we used to cover ICC events.”
“Yes, the situation is different now, but why should our World Cup accreditation be rejected entirely? Even if we did not go to India, we could have covered the event in Sri Lanka”, he added.
Although BCB had asked ICC in two separate emails, as well as during virtual and in-person meetings with ICC representatives, what measures would be taken to ensure the safety of players, team officials, spectators, and journalists wishing to cover the matches, ICC later stated in an official announcement, that there was no security threat for Bangladesh in India.
Even though ICC sent BCB’s security department a security assessment report prepared by an independent firm, which stated that there would be a mild to moderate security risk for spectators and journalists if matches were held in India, ICC ultimately did not take this into consideration.
So far, neither ICC nor BCB has issued any official comment regarding the mass rejection of Bangladeshi journalists.
