ICC reaffirms BD as U-19 WC hosts

The International Cricket Council (ICC) yesterday officially confirmed Bangladesh as the hosts of next year's ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup, scheduled to take place from January 22 to February 14. The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) however, will have to submit an appropriate security plan for the tournament which will require the nod of the ICC's security advisor.

"The board confirmed that the Bangladesh Cricket Board will host next year's ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup.

"As part of this decision, the BCB, working in conjunction with its government, will be developing an appropriate security plan that addresses all security risks to the satisfaction of the ICC's security advisor, working closely with security advisors of the other members," stated the ICC's press release, also describing other issues that were discussed in the ICC meeting in Dubai which ended yesterday.

Talks regarding the possibility of a shift in venue, following Cricket Australia's decision to postpone its tour on security grounds and the move to delay the South African women's cricket team's arrival, dominated the media in the last few days. However, the announcement yesterday dispersed all those thoughts.

The BCB expressed its pleasure following the ICC's announcement.

"We are really happy that the ICC has reaffirmed that the tournament will take place here. We can assure the ICC that a tournament can successfully take place here," said BCB director Jalal Yunus.

"As far as security is concerned we had proved our capability back in 2014 during the World Cup. During that ICC event we had given teams foolproof security and hopefully this time will be the same. In addition, we believe that the current scenario in Bangladesh is peaceful and that there are no problems," he added.

The likely venues for the World Cup are Dhaka, Sylhet, Cox's Bazar and Chittagong.

The other issue that the BCB wanted to address on the sidelines of the meeting in Dubai was regarding the Zimbabwe series. While Zimbabwe were initially supposed to arrive in November to play two Tests, at the moment it seems as though the two teams will battle it out in three ODIs and three T20Is next month.

However, a final decision is yet to be made.