T20 World Cup: ICC to replace Bangladesh if they don't travel to India, gives one day to decide
After the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) informed the ICC that it would not send the team to India due to security concerns, the issue was put to a vote at today’s ICC board meeting.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has given Bangladesh one day to communicate its final decision regarding the 2026 ICC Men's T20 World Cup.
After the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) informed the ICC that it would not send the team to India due to security concerns, the issue was put to a vote at today's ICC board meeting.
The vote resulted in a decision to include a replacement team in Bangladesh's place at the T20 World Cup.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
However, before that decision is implemented, the ICC has asked the BCB to consult with the Bangladesh government and convey a final position. One day has been given for this purpose. Cricinfo reported the development, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The decision was taken following an ICC Board meeting held via video conference on Wednesday, 21 January, convened to determine the way forward after the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) requested that its matches be moved from India to Sri Lanka.
The ICC said the decision was reached after reviewing all available security assessments, including independent evaluations, all of which concluded that there was no threat to the safety of Bangladesh players, team officials, media personnel or fans at any of the tournament venues in India.
It was also noted that making changes so close to the start of the tournament was not feasible. The ICC warned that altering the schedule in the absence of any credible security threat could set an undesirable precedent, potentially jeopardising the integrity of future ICC events and undermining the organisation's neutrality as the global governing body of the game.
In an effort to resolve the impasse, ICC management engaged in a series of meetings and correspondences with the BCB, sharing detailed information on the tournament's security arrangements, including layered support from federal and state law-enforcement agencies.
In a statement, an ICC spokesperson said: "Over the past several weeks, the ICC has engaged with the BCB in sustained and constructive dialogue, with the clear objective of enabling Bangladesh's participation in the tournament. During this period, the ICC shared detailed inputs, including independent security assessments, comprehensive venue-level security plans and formal assurances from the host authorities. All of these consistently concluded that there is no credible or verifiable threat to the safety or security of the Bangladesh team in India.
"Despite these efforts, the BCB maintained its position, repeatedly linking its participation in the tournament to a single, isolated and unrelated development concerning the involvement of one of its players in a domestic league. This matter has no bearing on the tournament's security framework or the conditions governing participation in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup.
"The ICC's venue and scheduling decisions are guided by objective threat assessments, host guarantees and the tournament's agreed terms of participation, which apply uniformly to all 20 competing nations. In the absence of any independent security findings that materially compromise the safety of the Bangladesh team, the ICC is unable to relocate fixtures.
"Doing so would have significant logistical and scheduling implications for other teams and fans around the world, and would also create far-reaching precedent-related challenges that risk undermining the neutrality, fairness and integrity of ICC governance.
"The ICC remains committed to acting in good faith, upholding consistent standards, and safeguarding the collective interests of the global game."
