New Delhi: A desperate Bangladesh Cricket Board has written to the Dispute Resolution Committee (DRC) of ICC requesting it to overturn the governing body’s decision to hold the national men’s team’s T20 World Cup games in India but its appeal won’t be heard as it is outside the remit of the sub-committee.
Even as the ICC has kept Scotland on stand-by, the BCB, under Aminul Islam Bulbul, after being completely cornered, decided to use its last resort, approach the DRC headed by Englishman Michael Beloff (King’s Counsel).
“Yes, BCB has approached the DRC of ICC as it wants to exhaust all its options. If DRC rules against BCB, then the only body that can be approached is the Court of Arbitration of Sports (CAS) in Switzerland,” a BCB source told PTI on the condition of anonymity.
Bangladesh’s interim government and its sports ministry advisor Asif Nazrul had announced that the team wouldn’t travel to India due to “security reasons” after senior pacer Mustafizur Rahaman was removed from the Kolkata Knight Riders squad on BCCI’s diktat.
If one checks the ICC’s Constitution and ‘Terms of Reference’ for the Dispute Resolution Committee (DRC), then it will become clear that it doesn’t have any right to hear an appeal against a decision passed by the Board of Directors of the global body.
While the ICC Board of Directors emphatically voted 14-2 in favour of keeping Bangladesh’s matches in India after an independent security assessment which cited security threat being “low to moderate”, Nazrul maintained that it wasn’t the BCB but the government which is mandated to take the decision.
As per clause 1.3 of Terms of Reference of DRC: “The Committee shall not operate as an appeal body against decisions of the ICC or any decision-making body established under the ICC’s Memorandum and Articles of Association or under any rules or regulations of the ICC…”
An ICC board source said: “Bangladesh can approach the DRC but if one looks at the rules, the case can’t even be heard as the committee doesn’t have the remit to hear an appeal which is against the decision made by the Board of Directors.”
It is understood that ICC chairman Jay Shah, who was in Namibia for the U19 World Cup, is in Dubai now, and a formal decision on Bangladesh’s replacement would be announced by Saturday.
“The ICC Board Members are extremely angry with Aminul Islam Bulbul as to why before informing the global body, a press conference was held. Asif Nazrul is a persona-non-grata for the ICC but Bulbul shouldn’t have allowed a press conference before informing their decision to the ICC,” the source told PTI.
The ICC’s DRC acts according to British law, and one of its most recent verdicts under Beloff came in 2018 when it had summarily rejectedthe Pakistan Cricket Board’s USD 70 million compensation claim against the BCCI for allegedly not honouring an agreement to play bilateral series in Pakistan.
The DRC, in its verdict, had termed what PCB back then had called a “Memorandum of Understanding” between two nations as merely a “letter of intent” which wasn’t binding on the BCCI.
The DRC normally checks if the ICC Board have followed all rules as per its law and accordingly gives its verdict. It is not an appeals body.
PTI
