The ICC has given Bangladesh Cricket Board Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) an additional 24-hour period to meet with the Bangladesh government to confirm whether the Bangladesh national team will travel in India during the 2026 Men’s T20 World Cup. If Bangladesh remain in its decision to not participate in India due to security concerns, it is expected that the ICC Board has resolved to replace the team with Scotland for the tournament, in accordance with the team’s rankings.
The decision was taken at the ICC Board meeting on Wednesday the 13th of March, when a majority of directors voted for an alternative if the BCB doesn’t change its position. Of the 15 directors in attendance, Pakistan was the only board that was believed to have backed Bangladesh. The meeting was called in response to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) sent a letter to the ICC as well as other board members on the Tuesday, expressing their support for the BCB’s position.
All Full member boards were represented during the conference. Participants comprised ICC Chair Jay Shah, BCB president Aminul Islam, BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia, SLC president Shammi Silva, PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi, CA chairman Mike Baird, Zimbabwe Cricket president Tavenga Mukuhlani, CWI president Kishore Shallow, Cricket Ireland chair Brian MacNeice, Cricket New Zealand representative Roger Twose, ECB chair Richard Thompson, CSA representative Mohammed Moosajee, and Cricket Afghanistan chair Mirwais Ashraf.
Associate Director of the Member Mubashshir Usmani as well as Mahinda Vallipuram also attended as were ICC President Sanjog Gupta, deputy chairman Imran Khawaja, and ICC general manager Gaurav Saxena. ICC Anti-Corruption Unit head Andrew Ephgrave who travelled to Dhaka this week to conduct talks in person with BCB officials BCB concerning security guarantees and security assurances, was also in attendance at the meeting.
In a statement issued following the meeting in a statement following the meeting, the ICC stated that its decision was taken after analyzing various security assessments, which included independent assessments, all of which found no evidence of a threat to Bangladesh officials, players or media personnel supporters at one of the locations in India.
The ICC Board further noted that changing the program at such a late point is not possible and could result in a destructive precedent. It warned that changes without a known security threats would compromise the credibility of future ICC events and undermine its neutrality as a governing body for the world. The ICC also said that it given the BCB detailed information BCB regarding the security arrangements, which included layers of protection from the federal and state police agencies.
The background to Bangladesh’s standoff with the ICC
The question of Bangladesh’s participation continued for a few weeks. On January 4th on the 4th of January, the BCB in conjunction in conjunction with officials from the Bangladesh government, officially advised that the ICC that it will not invite the squad to India because of security issues. They also requested that the matches be moved towards Sri Lanka, one of the co-hosts of the tournament. The BCCI’s instruction to the Kolkata Knight Riders to release Bangladesh fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman from their IPL 2026 squad, though there was no reason for this decision.
Since this time since then, the BCB as well as the Bangladesh government have continued to insist the team won’t travel to India. In talks with the ICC this week the BCB also asked for the group swap of an international team like Ireland and Ireland, which are expected to be playing all its group games at Sri Lanka. This proposal was rebuffed at the ICC.
The ICC stated that it was been engaged in a long-term and constructive discussions with the BCB in order to ease Bangladesh’s participation. It repeated that all security checks as well as venue-specific plans and hosting assurances have consistently concluded that there was no plausible or credible threat. The ICC further stated it was the BCB continued to tie its participation to a non-related domestic league dispute that involved a single player which, according to the BCB, did not have any bearing on the security plan for the World Cup.
Bangladesh are part of the group C for the event. They will play their first three games at Kolkata 7 February, 9 and 14, with their final group match at Mumbai in February 17.
