Dhaka, February 12 Bangladesh Cricket Board chief Aminul Islam says he will be in Colombo to watch the India-Pakistan T20 World Cup clash on Sunday, where he expects to finally resolve the tensions with the BCCI after several weeks of strained exchanges.
Speaking to the Bangladeshi newspaper 'Pratham Alo', Islam said the invitation to the high-profile match came from the ICC.
"The ICC has made a decision. The major stakeholders of the ICC are these five Asian countries, and for the India-Pakistan World Cup match on the 15th, they want representatives from all five Asian countries to be present at the ground together, watch the match together, and talk to one another," Islam said.
India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan form the Asian bloc within the global body.
When asked if the meeting could be an opportunity to resolve the tensions with the BCCI, Islam said, "You can consider it as such."
The BCCI-BCB tensions began after the Indian Board ordered the release of Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman from his IPL contract with Kolkata Knight Riders due to "unspecified developments."
It was widely speculated that the move was triggered by political violence in Bangladesh, targeting Hindus.
Bangladesh responded by refusing to travel to India for their World Cup matches, citing security concerns. However, the ICC, led by former BCCI secretary Jay Shah, rejected their concerns, describing the threat perception as low to moderate after its own assessment.
Bangladesh were eventually replaced by Scotland in the tournament after refusing to budge despite lengthy discussions with the global body.
Their exclusion led to the Pakistani government announcing a boycott of the game against India as a show of solidarity with Bangladesh. However, the impasse was resolved after the BCB and the Sri Lankan government persuaded Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to withdraw the call.
Following another round of discussions, the ICC decided not to penalise the BCB for its previous stance and also allotted one ICC event to Bangladesh in the 2028-2031 cycle.
Islam said the board will prepare a Memorandum of Understanding to ensure that the assurances are binding.
"We will also enter into an agreement. The agreement will be a line-by-line document, similar to an MoU, so that there is no uncertainty," said Islam.
"You know that earlier, when we held the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Annual General Meeting in Dhaka, a similar issue arose. We also prepared a MoU-type document to ensure that no one could deviate from the contract in any way.
"Similar discussions (regarding preparing the MoU) with the ICC are more or less finalised," he added.