DHAKA: The President of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Zaheer Abbas on Monday (February 15) praised Bangladesh for hosting the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup tournament successfully.

He said, “Bangladesh has once again proved as a worthy host.”

The ICC president was addressing a joint press conference organized by ICC and the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB).

The tournament ended on Sunday (February 14).

Zaheer Abbas also congratulated Bangladesh U19 skipper Mehidy Hasan Miraz for not only leading his side to their best ever result at this level, but also winning the Player of the Tournament award.

The President also praised the Bangladesh crowd, saying “The crowd here love their game and they really support Bangladesh like anything.”

Alongside ICC president, the ICC chief executive officer David Richardson, and the BCB president Nazmul Hassan also addressed the media on how the event went.

The ICC CEO started with a congratulatory message to the West Indies U19 Cricket team on becoming the Champions.

He also thanked the BCB for hosting the tournament successfully adding that the event might not bear the same stature as the senior World Cup but the logistical and operational requirements are the same, and in fact, sometimes even more difficult and challenging.

Dave Richardson also thanked the match venues and the practice venues.

He also congratulated all the teams who participated in the event adding that special mention has to be made of the performance of some of the associates – Namibia finished 7th, Nepal 8th and Afghanistan as winners of Plate in 9th position.

He also laid his congratulatory notes for Bangladesh Cricket as a whole.

The BCB president acknowledged the fact that it was a challenge hosting the U19CWC especially because “this event gets into a whole new dimension when it comes to Bangladesh.”

He laid down his gratitude to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for extending support and the ICC for bearing the faith and providing the confidence and resources to organize the event.

He also thanked the law enforcing agencies for their outstanding and continuous support during the tournament and the crowd for their support.

He also said, “This has been the biggest Youth World Cup ever, with live telecast of no less than 20 matches. There had been unprecedented media and social coverage, and we were privileged to get an exciting glimpse of the future.”

In response to a question on whether Australia’s pullout was justified or not, ICC CEO said, “I think we’re very pleased with the fact that we made the decision to carry on with the tournament, despite Australia’s decision to withdraw their team. I think the outcomes and the results that that was the correct decision.”

He further said, “We’ll take it seriously, if we need to, and make sure that any threat that is received or any threat that is identified, we’ll put in place anything needed to negate it. As I said, we were just concerned about staging the event successfully and if necessary that should be a consideration in future.”

The BCB President was asked if he has a message to deliver to the world, he said that Bangladesh did have the history of holding successful events in the past like the WT20, Asia Cups and “…we have done it again, hosting the U19CWC successfully.

“I strongly feel that we should have a standard of security and if a country can meet the standard the country should be termed as safe to play in. ICC has come forward and stood beside us at a critical stage and I am very thankful to them for this.”

Nazmul Hassan also expressed his gratitude to the participating teams adding that Bangladesh showed it can hold any international tournament successfully despite any threat.

BDST: 2106 HRS, FEB 15, 2016
SR