Bangladesh Slam ICC Over 'Unfair' U19 WC Scheduling After Exit

JAN.28 - The Bangladesh vs ICC conflict escalates as the Under-19 team criticises the ICC for an unfair travel schedule.

The Bangladesh vs ICC standoff continues to expand. After the senior men’s team was ejected from the T20 World Cup 2026 for refusing to travel to India, the Bangladesh Under-19 team has expressed displeasure at the International Cricket Council for treating them unfairly. The accusations come in the wake of Bangladesh’s early group-stage exit from the Under-19 World Cup, failing to progress into the semi-finals. In a fresh storm cooked up by officials, the ICC has been criticised for penning a ‘heavy schedule’ that apparently made it tough for Bangladesh.

“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,” game development coordinator Habibul Bashar told The Daily Star.

Bangladesh’s complaints stem from its itinerary. The team reached Zimbabwe on January 6, and while their poor show and rain played their part in showing Bangladesh the exit door, the back-and-forth, travelling, as Bashar points out, didn’t help. For example, Bangladesh’s two warm-up matches – against Pakistan and Scotland – were scheduled to be played in Masvingo and Harare, cities 4 hours apart.

With ICC not arranging domestic travel this time, teams are left with no option but to travel by bus. From Harare, the team travelled to Bulawayo for their match against New Zealand, a nearly nine-hour drive, before returning to Harare for the USA clash. From there, they went to Bulawayo again for the Super Six match against England. They have one more travel left – to Harare – for their final game against Zimbabwe.

“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," Bashar added.

The gruelling schedule irked the Bangladesh head coaches, more so because teams like India and Australia’s itinerary wasn’t as hectic. India remained in Bulawayo for all their matches, while Australia conducted all their warm-up fixtures and group-stage matches in Windhoek, Namibia. They only travelled to Harare for their final Super Six encounter against the West Indies. England, however, played their warm-up matches in Harare and Bulawayo. However, they remained in Harare for their entire group-stage campaign before facing a four-day break ahead of their Super Six matches in Bulawayo.

“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. 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,” added Bashar.

“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.” - (hindustantimes)