BCB president 'not worried' about hosting World Twenty20

BCB president Nazmul Hassan has played down the impact of the West Indies Under-19 team's withdrawal from its tour of Bangladesh, following an explosion near the team hotel in Chittagong, on the country's hosting of the World Twenty20. Once the general elections (scheduled for January 5) are held the violence is likely to dissipate, Hassan said, so he is "not worried" about hosting the World T20 in February.

"The impact won't be severe," Hassan said. "The situation can't be like this all the time. We are hoping that before the start of the World T20s, there will be a solution to our political situation. If there is no solution then the games won't work, but by January all these solutions will come. So I am not worried about the future games. I am not worried about the World T20s. I am hopeful that all the instability will be over by December."

The West Indies players and staff have remained within the premises of Hotel Agrabad in central Chittagong, but are expected to move to Dhaka on Tuesday morning. The WICB had said on Sunday that it was making arrangements for the players to leave the country, but the BCB wants to discuss resuming the tour with the West Indies board. Hassan said had directed his acting CEO, Nizamuddin Chowdhury, to discuss the matter with his counterpart at the WICB.

"Now whether they [West Indies] are thinking about the future, and that because the elections are coming closer there might be more danger, I don't know," Hassan said. "We will have a telephone conversation with them on [Monday] evening."

The ongoing troubles in Bangladesh have seemed to escalate over the past two months, as the two main political parties have been at loggerheads and taken it out to the streets. Hassan said he would appeal to the political parties once again, but pointed out that cricket has always been shielded from the violence.

"I have always appealed to all the political parties to leave cricket aside and I have always received their support. I might appeal again that such things don't interfere with the cricket. There is a bit of political instability, this has always happened, but I don't believe that we have reached a scenario where the games would be called off."