Bangladesh shooters to travel to India for Asian Championships, confirms NRAI

New Delhi: The Bangladesh government has approved its shooters to travel to India for next month's Asian Rifle and Pistol Championships, days after refusing to send its national cricket team to the country to participate in the upcoming T20 World Cup due to security concerns.

While the T20 showpiece will be held in venues across India and Sri Lanka from February 7 to March 8, the shooting event will take place at the Dr Karni Singh Range here from February 2 to 14, with 17 countries sending more than 300 shooters.

Bangladesh will field two rifle shooters, who will compete in a total of three events.

There had been speculation that after Bangladesh pulled out of the global T20 cricket tournament, its shooting team might also withdraw over "security concerns". However, the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) told PTI on Wednesday that the players from the neighbouring country is set to compete.

"So far there is no news that the Bangladesh team is not coming. Their team is coming, no doubt about it," said NRAI secretary Rajiv Bhatia.

"We at NRAI are in regular touch with them (Bangladesh federation officials). The Ministry of External Affairs has given its clearance and we have forwarded it to the (Indian) embassy for visa process," added Bhatia.

Bangladesh will be represented by 21-year-old women's rifle shooter Arefin Shaira and 26-year-old Olympian Md Robiul Islam. The two 10m air rifle shooters will compete in the individual events before teaming up for the mixed team competition.

A report in Dhaka's Daily Sun on Wednesday stated that the Bangladesh government had approved the shooting team's tour of India.

"The Youth and Sports Ministry issued the official government order (GO) on Wednesday, clearing the team to compete in the championship scheduled to take place from February 2 to 14. The decision comes despite Bangladesh cancelling the national cricket team's tour of India for the T20 World Cup earlier due to security concerns," the report said.

According to the report, Bangladesh government believes the shooting championship will "not pose significant security risks, as the competition is set to be held indoors at a secured venue (Karni Singh Range)".

The uncertainty had arisen after Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) refused to let its team travel to India for the World Cup, citing security concerns in the wake of Mustafizur Rahman's ouster from the Indian Premier League.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) then confirmed that Scotland has replaced Bangladesh in the global competition, saying the "difficult decision" was taken since it was not feasible to meet BCB's request to shift their matches to Sri Lanka so close to the tournament.

The ICC maintained that there was no verifiable security threat to the Bangladesh national team, officials or supporters in India and it was not appropriate to amend the published event schedule.