New Delhi: The Bangladesh Cricket Board has announced that the national team will not travel to India for the 2026 T20 World Cup in India. The decision was taken on January 22 following an internal board meeting. A day earlier, on January 21, the ICC held discussions with BCB directors and and issued a clear deadline, stating that if Bangladesh opted out of the tournament, Scotland would be included as a replacement ahead of the February 7 start date.
Announcing the decision, BCB President Aminul Islam Bulbul noted that the idea is to still play the marquee tournament, but once again denied playing it in India. He called the Mustafizur Rahman story, when the Bangladesh pacer was dropped from the Kolkata Knight Riders squad for IPL 2026. He noted that it isn’t an isolated single issue, as ICC claimed in their statement last night. He urged the governing body to move the matches away from India and blamed the ICC for failing to find a solution.
“We will continue to communicate with the ICC. We want to play the World Cup, but we won’t play in India. We will keep fighting. There were some shocking calls in the ICC Board Meeting. The Mustafizur issue is not an isolated single issue. They (India) were the sole decision makers in that issue,” Bangladesh Cricket Board President Aminul Islam Bulbul said.
“ICC had denied us our request to shift our matches away from India. We are not sure about the status of world cricket. Its popularity is going down. They have locked away 200 million people. Cricket is going to the Olympics, but if a country like us is not going there, it is ICC’s failure,” he added.
Scotland to have same schedule as Bangladesh
Bangladesh’s T20 World Cup campaign is supposed to begin on the opening day itself against West Indies at the iconic Eden Gardens. Kolkata is supposed to host two other Bangladesh matches, before the Litton Das-led side is planned to move to Mumbai for their final group game against Nepal.
Now, as per initial planning, ICC will simply replace Bangladesh with Scotland and not change the entire schedule. -(IndiaTV)
