Bangladesh Cricket Board’s stubborn stand of not playing their league matches in India in the ICC T20 World Cup 2026 is set to cost them dear as they are set to be booted out of the tournament. The International Cricket Council had made it abundantly clear that the schedule for the T20 World Cup 2026 will not be changing under any circumstances after the board voted 14-2 in favour of this decision.

The ICC had given BCB an additional 24 hours to convince the Bangladesh government to change their mind and go ahead with playing their Group C matches in Kolkata and Mumbai. The Bangladesh government’s sports advisor Asif Nazrul called for a meeting with the cricketers from the national team in Dhaka at 3pm on Thursday and according to a report in ESPNCricinfo website there is no change in Bangladesh’s stance.

Bangladesh cricket team dont want to play their T20 World Cup 2026 matches in India and want their fixtures moved to Sri Lanka.

After the meeting between national team cricketers and Asif Nazrul BCB President and former captain Aminul Islam spoke to the media.

“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 cant 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” Islam told the media.

Government sports advisor Asif Nazrul was still ‘hopeful’ that the ICC will allow Bangladesh to play in Sri Lanka. “We are hopeful that ICC will give us the opportunity to play in Sri Lanka. It is our government who has decided not to go to India” Nazrul said.

 

We will continue to communicate with the ICC. We want to play the World Cup but we wont 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… pic.twitter.com/xYwoFR8kJg
— ANI (@ANI) January 22 2026

We didn’t get justice from ICC: Asif Nazrul
Nazrul believes the Bangladesh Cricket Board didn’t get justice from the ICC board on their pleas to shift their league matches to Sri Lanka.

“I think we did not get justice from ICC. Whether we will play in the World Cup or not is entirely a government decision” Asif Nazrul told the reporters in Dhaka after his meeting with the cricketers in the national team.

“I think nothing happened in India in the recent past that suggests things have changed there (security-wise). We hope ICC will give us justice” he added.
ICC will replace Bangladesh with Scotland if they refuse to play in India
The ICC have already informed the BCB that they will be replaced by Scotland if they refuse to play their league matches in India. “The decision was taken after considering all security assessments conducted including independent reviews all of which indicated there was no threat to Bangladesh players media persons officials and fans at any of the tournament venues in India” the ICC said in a statement following the board meeting.

“The ICC Board noted that it was not feasible to make changes so close to the tournament and that altering the schedule under the circumstances in the absence of any credible security threat could set a precedent that would jeopardise the sanctity of future ICC events and undermine its neutrality as a global governing body.

“The ICC management also engaged in a series of correspondences and meetings with the BCB in a bid to resolve the impasse sharing detailed information on the event security plan including layered federal and state law-enforcement support” the statement added.

Bangladesh only demanded a shift in their matches from India to Sri Lanka after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) asked Shah Rukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders to release Bangladeshi pacer Mustafizur Rahman who was bought for Rs 9.2 crore ahead of the IPL 2026 season.