Cricket
Just before the start of the tournament, Bangladesh refused to travel to India due to security reasons, creating a controversy. Pakistan also were dragged into this debate.
Despite ICC constantly assuring about the security concerns for the Bangladesh team, they chose not to participate in the tournament and were eventually removed from the tournament. This led to Scotland coming in and replacing Bangladesh
Pakistan then supported Bangladesh and even hinted at boycotting the tournament. This created massive tension between cricket boards and the ICC before the World Cup started.
"This ICC World Cup was very important because there was a lot of chatter before the start of the tournament about whether certain teams would participate and how the World Cup would go ahead. As ICC chairman, I can say that no team is bigger than the organisation and no single team makes an organisation. An organisation is a combination of all teams," Shah said during the award function, without naming Bangladesh or Pakistan.
"The World Cup has shattered all viewership records. For the first time in history, we recorded 7.2 million concurrent viewers. All records were broken in overall viewership. If you see, the USA gave India a hard time, the Netherlands troubled Pakistan, Zimbabwe beat Australia, and Nepal gave England a scare. I congratulate all the associate teams; they have done very well against the full members," he added.
"I have a message for Surya and Gautam Bhai: slipping from the top to the bottom takes only months, while climbing from the bottom to the top takes years. Keep working hard and keep winning awards. When I was with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), I had planned till the 2028 Olympics. Now I am in the ICC, and others are in charge at the BCCI. All of you should prepare for 2030, 2031 and even 2036," he said.