BCB confirms it won't challenge ICC's decision for removing Bangladesh from T20 World Cup 2026
Bangladesh were replaced with Scotland for the T20 World Cup 2026 after the former's unwillingness to travel to India for their matches in the tournament. BCB has confirmed that it won't challenge ICC's decision.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) media committee chairman, Amzad Hossain, has confirmed that the board is not going to challenge the International Cricket Council (ICC)'s decision to remove its team from the upcoming T20 World Cup 2026 and replacing them with Scotland.
This came after reports surfaced stating that the BCB has written to the ICC's dispute resolution committee to look into their removal from the World Cup due to their unwillingness to play in India. However, the media chairman confirmed that they are not challenging the call.
"We have accepted the decision of the ICC board," Amzad said. "Since the ICC has said that we cannot go and play or they cannot shift our games to Sri Lanka, in this case, we cannot go and play in India. Our position remains the same. We are not going to any separate arbitration or anything here."
ICC replaces Bangladesh with Scotland for World Cup
The ICC released a statement on Saturday and confirmed that Scotland would replace Bangladesh for the global showpiece that kicks off on February 7. In a statement, the ICC stated "that it was not feasible to meet the BCB’s requests so close to the tournament." The Board also stated that "Independent security assessments were conducted from internal and external experts" but there were "no no credible or verifiable security threat to the Bangladesh national team, officials or supporters in India."
During a meeting last week, the ICC had told Bangladesh that they would be removed from the tournament if they continued to deny coming to India. During the meeting, the majority of the Board members had voted for their removal, with Scotland coming in.
Bangladesh were given a 24-hour time period to rethink their stance, but they remained firm in not travelling to India for the tournament. BCB had a discussion with its government, which stayed with the stance. "After the ICC board meeting, there was a cabinet meeting of the Bangladesh government, and a decision was made there. The decision clearly stated that our team will not be able to go to India. This decision has been communicated by the government," Amzad said.
"After that, the ICC asked us to reply within 24 hours. We told them politely that it is not possible for us to go and play according to this fixture."