Bangladesh Refuses to Travel to India as ICC–BCCI Row Puts T20 World Cup 2026 in Doubt

The Bangladesh Cricket Board has decided that the national team will not go to India for the 2026 T20 World Cup. This came after the ICC gave them 24 hours to change their decision. After talking with the Bangladesh government, the BCB stayed firm and said India is not safe for their players, so the team will not travel.

Bangladesh says no to India over safety fears ahead of T20 World Cup 2026

The BCB held meetings with Youth and Sports Advisor Asif Nazrul, the cabinet, and the players. Even after all the discussions, the decision did not change. The government believes India is not safe for Bangladeshi citizens, while the BCB also said they are not fully convinced by the safety promises given for the tournament.

BCB President Aminul Islam said that,

“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,”

The Bangladesh Cricket Board has raised concerns about how the ICC handled the issue. They feel that the Indian cricket board is really making the decisions, while the ICC is just passing them along. Still, the BCB has not given up completely. If the ICC changes its decision, Bangladesh could still take part in the T20 World Cup.

He further added that,

“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,”