As per the latest news, ICC gives BCB 24 hours to decide whether to play or not their matches in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 after being asked to shift their matches from India to Sri Lanka due to security reasons. Eventually, the tenth edition of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup is all set to start from the 7th of February and end on the 8th of March. India and Sri Lanka are going to be the hosts for this edition of the competition.
This has been going on for quite a few weeks now, whether Bangladesh will participate in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 or not. Things got out of hand after Mustafizur Rahman was removed from the Kolkata Knight Riders’ Indian Premier League 2026 squad. Now, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has given an ultimatum to the Bangladesh Cricket Board to give their final decision, as the team to replace them is ready if they choose to opt out.
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ICC gives BCB 24 hours to decide whether to play or not: Who can replace Bangladesh if they opt out?
As we have just over two weeks for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 to start, and Bangladesh’s participation is still not confirmed, the ICC has given its final word to the Bangladesh Cricket Board through a video conference. The ICC also has a team ready who will already travel to India and play in place of Bangladesh. It will be very important for the Bangladesh Cricket Board to make a decision, as they will be meeting today at 3 PM at the Hotel InterContinental to brief the team on whether they will travel or not to India for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026.
This request from the Bangladesh Cricket Board was supported by the Pakistan Cricket Board, but in the end, there were other ICC board votes that did not favour this decision. There were also suggestions about replacing Bangladesh with Ireland, which is in Group B and plays all of its matches in Sri Lanka. This decision was not taken into consideration. The International Cricket Council (ICC) has said this as per their official website:
Despite these efforts, the BCB maintained its position, repeatedly linking its participation in the tournament to a single, isolated and unrelated development concerning one of its player’s involvement in a domestic league. This linkage 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 carry significant logistical and scheduling consequences for other teams and fans worldwide, 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
It is clear that shifting the matches at such a late stage will surely cause significant logistical problems for ICC, as they have already made arrangements for the same. Scotland would be the team that would enter the T20 World if Bangladesh fails to travel, and they would face some fines as well. This has already happened in Scotland, where they also played in the 2009 ICC Men’s World Cup after failing to qualify, as Zimbabwe players had visa issues. Later, Scotland was given a place in the tournament.