The situation in Bangladesh is tense.
There has been political turmoil brewing in the country for
weeks now.
What started as protests against the reservation system has turned
into a bit of a nightmare.
Violence erupted, leading to several deaths,
a government completely under siege,
forcing the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee,
and a regime for 15 years to come to a
grinding halt.
And this catastrophe has not spared anyone associated with the
government.
Bangladesh former cricketer, cricket captain Mashvi Murthaza.
Remember, he turned politician and secured a seat for a
second consecutive term for Sheikh Hasinas.
Awami League also bore the brunt of the protesting public.
Mutaz House was vandalized and set ablaze.
The situation is highly unstable in Bangladesh affecting every other
aspect linked to its functioning including sports.
Now cricket is a huge commodity in Bangladesh and in
just three months from now,
in the month of October,
the first few weeks of October that the country was
set to host the
ICC Women's World Cup. The last time Bangladesh hosted an
ICC event was the T20 World Cup in
2014. They also Co hosted the
2011 ODI World Cup along with India and Sri Lanka.
This Women's World Cup in a few months from now
is going to be a Seminole one for them and
that now stands in danger of being taken away from
Bangladesh. Reports say that ICC is already looking for alternate
venues.
Sources in fact say that they have little faith of
the situation in Bangladesh stabilizing in time for the preparations
for an ICC event to be undertaken.
And ICC event is a big deal.
It takes time for venues to be prepared,
pitches to be prepped, hotels and facilities to be kept
in place.
Teams need to travel and stay in the cities and
feel safe.
None of that is even remotely possible.
Seeing the kind of mayhem that is gripping the whole
country,
ICC has thought of a few backup venues already.
The countries are some of the neighbours,
quite obviously. So the options are India,
but of course Sri Lanka and the UAE.
Let's look at the three options individually.
India. They are the most experienced of the subcontinent countries
when it comes to game development and of course hosting
ICC events.
Their last ICC tournament was in fact held just last
year in November.
They will be able to get things in place.
This is in fact, the country that has lent a
helping hand to its other neighbours,
Afghanistan and Nepal when it has come to hosting their
games and providing infrastructure in the form of stadiums and
facilities for the teams to practice and players to hone
their skills in. So, when it comes to getting things
in place in short notice,
ICC needn't look beyond India.
The only snag here would be the issuance of visas
to the Pakistan team as that takes a while,
but that could also be handled if it comes down
to speaking India as the venue.
The other option of course,
is Sri Lanka. The last time they hosted an ICC
event was in
2012, the T20 World Cup.
The issue here is the weather.
The biggest concern its rainy season around the months of
October and November all through the island country.
So that could prove to be a bit of a
deterrent for the tournament.
The third option, quite a good fall back one for
ICC always has been the UAE.
They've almost always stepped up to accommodate matches and tournaments
in stopgap situations.
Whether it was owing to certain circumstances like India not
being able to travel to Pakistan or the pandemic a
few years ago where they stepped up to host the
Indian Premier League, a tournament that they were able to
conduct despite the many restrictions and concerns that loomed large.
UAE has the infrastructure and facilities to handle multiple team
events.
The only concern would be the tracks that need to
be prepped to provide more evenly contested matches.
ICC will have to make the decision rather quickly as
they will have to give the new host enough time
to get the preparation started
and it's a tournament that has to take place with
no hiccups.
After the mini disaster of the USA leg at the
recently concluded Mens T20 World Cup,
ICC will want to be doubly certain that there are
no loopholes or any issues that aren't being ironed out
in time.
Its a massive blow for Bangladesh as a cricketing country
and for the people who love the sport and are
ardent fans,
passionate fans who travel the world over to support their
team.
For a country that only burst onto the international scene
as late as the 19 late 1980s and attained full
ICC membership only as late as 2000,
Bangladesh had made massive strides in the sport.
But this situation is threatening to peg them back
if not resolved.
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Hello and welcome to First Call to America.
I'm Eric Ham coming to you live from the nation's
capital of Washington,
DC.