The Bangladesh Cricket Council (BCB) has decided that the Bangladesh cricket team won’t travel to India for the T20 World Cup 2026. The International Cricket Council (ICC) had given the BCB a 1-day ultimatum to reconsider its stance. After deliberating with the Bangladesh government, the BCB has once again stated that India isn’t safe for their players and therefore, they won’t travel there.
Bangladesh refuses to cede
The BCB held discussions with Bangladesh Youth and Sports Advisor Asif Nazrul, followed by a cabinet meeting and talks with cricketers. In the end, they didn’t change their stance. The Bangladesh government feels India isn’t safe for their citizens, and BCB thinks the ICC has guaranteed the safety of the players.
“We all want to play the World Cup. The security issue remains intact for our players and contingent in India. It started with one player getting kicked out of their league. ICC can say whatever they want, that there’s no security concern. But our player has been kicked out of their tournament. That country is hosting the World Cup. What has changed since then? If Mustafizur can’t be provided security, how can we be convinced that ICC will give security?
Whatever I communicate to players, that is a private communication. I won’t say anything they told us. The purpose of the meeting was to know what they want. I don’t want to put our players at risk. We want to play the World Cup but not in India but in Sri Lanka,” BCB President Aminul Islam said.
BCB questions ICC and BCCI
BCB has questioned the ICC for handling the situation. They believe the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has been calling the shots, with the ICC merely acting as their mouthpiece.
“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 the ICC’s failure.
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,” he further added.
However, BCB has a little hope left. If the ICC changes their stance, Bangladesh can still play the T20 World Cup.
