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New Delhi: The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has refused to travel to India for the 2026 T20 World Cup after a meeting with the government’s sports advisor in Dhaka on Thursday (January 22). Bangladesh sports advisor Asif Nazrul said that they won't change their stance and are still hopeful to get justice from the ICC.
"There is no scope to change our decision. We believe we did not get justice from the ICC. We still hope that ICC will do justice with us,” Asif Nazrul said as quoted by the Daily Star after a meeting with Bangladesh team cricketers and BCB officials.
According to Bangladesh Cricket Board president Aminul, they will go back to the International Cricket Council (ICC) with their plan to play Group C matches in Sri Lanka.
"We will go back to the ICC with our plan to play in Sri Lanka. They did give us a 24 hour ultimatum but a global body can't really do that. ICC will miss out on 200 million people watching the World Cup. It will be their loss. ICC is calling Sri Lanka co-hosts. They are not co-hosts. It is a hybrid model. Some of the things I heard in the ICC meeting was shocking," said BCB president Aminul Islam.
Bangladesh's decision comes a day after the International Cricket Council said the 2026 T20 World Cup will go ahead as scheduled and that the BCB's request to shift their matches from India to Sri Lanka was rejected.
Nazrul further added that they wanted to participate in the T20 World Cup, but security risks associated with playing in India still exist.
"There has been no change in the security risk situation regarding playing in India at present. This concern is not based on any abstract or hypothetical idea; rather, it stems from a real incident in which the Indian cricket board failed to provide security to one of our top players [Mustafizur Rahman] under pressure from extremists, and he was asked to leave India," he added.
Earlier, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) directed the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to release Mustafizur Rahman from its IPL 2026 squad. According to the original T20 World Cup schedule, Bangladesh are scheduled to play three matches - against West Indies (Feb 7), vs Italy (Feb 9), and vs England (Feb 14) in Kolkata, before travelling to Mumbai to face Nepal on February 17.
