New Delhi, 21 January. The International Cricket Council (ICC) has reached the final decision on Bangladesh’s participation in the ICC T20 World Cup. In this sequence, ICC has informed Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) to inform the interim Bangladesh government that if it refuses to send the team led by Liton Das to India for the T20 World Cup 2026 proposed from February 7, then it will be replaced. This information has been given in the report of popular cricket website ESPNcricinfo.
Voting 14-2 for Bangladesh’s replacement
According to the report, in the meeting chaired by ICC Chairman Jay Shah, the ICC Board voted 14-2 against Bangladesh’s demands from the T20 World Cup and to include Scotland in the tournament instead of Bangladesh. BCB President Aminul Islam and representatives of all full member boards also attended this meeting.
Representatives of other boards attending the meeting included BCCI Secretary Devjit Saikia, Sri Lanka Cricket President Shami Silva, PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi, CWI President Kishore Shallow, CA Chairman Mike Baird, Zimbabwe Cricket President Tavenga Mukhulani, Cricket Ireland Chairman Brian McNeice, Cricket New Zealand representative Roger Tose, ECB Chairman Richard Thompson, Cricket South Africa representative Mohammad Moosaji and Cricket Afghanistan Chairman Mirwaiz Ashraf etc. were included.
Since both BCB and ICC seemed adamant on their stand in the meeting, the danger of Bangladesh being thrown out of the competition increased. BCB had demanded to shift the matches to Sri Lanka citing safety concerns of players in India, which was rejected by the ICC. This controversy increased when Mustafizur Rahman was released from IPL on the orders of BCCI. ICC had given Bangladesh an ultimatum to take a decision by today i.e. 21st January.
During the conflict between BCB and ICC, there are also reports that if Bangladesh refuses to play the T20 World Cup, then ICC will talk to Scotland. However, according to a BBC report, the ICC has not contacted Cricket Scotland on this matter. Cricket Scotland officials have also said that they have not spoken to the ICC out of respect for the Bangladesh Cricket Board.
PCB came out in support of BCB
The PCB has sent an email to the ICC saying that it fully supports Bangladesh’s decision to refuse to play in India. According to media reports, a day before the ICC meeting, the PCB wrote a letter to the global body saying that it supports the BCB’s stance, citing political instability in the region and a copy of this letter has been sent to all ICC board members.
Comments are closed.