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]Bangladesh vs India T20 World Cup saga continues, BCB deny getting ultimatum from ICC
by K D Mishra
The battle between Bangladesh and India regarding relocating Bangladesh’s T20 World Cup 2026 matches to Sri Lanka continues to take on new developments. Today, ESPNCricinfo stated that the ICC has given Bangladesh an ultimatum stating either to travel to India or forfeit their match points. However, Bangladesh has now refuted this news outlet and stated they received no notice on that matter from the ICC.
According to Bangladesh paper The Daily Star, one official from BCB stated that they did not have any conference calls with BCCI or ICC and that the ICC responded to an email that was sent by BCB earlier this week on a question relating to an international tournament held later this year in Australia.
The BCB official continued by stating that the ICC also raised a few further questions but indicated they would put out a media release to the public soon. The official also added that no ultimatum was specifically brought up in the correspondence between the ICC and BCB by way of an email. Finally, there is a tweet from Cricbuzz indicating an official announcement by the ICC should occur on January 10, 2023.
Breaking now: ICC won’t accept Bangladesh demand to shift World Cup matches out of India.We now find ourselves in a tit for tat situation that was entirely avoidable politically, diplomatically and in cricket terms. Social media outrage can’t dictate complex issues ! My quick… pic.twitter.com/WxzSaSaoxl
— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) January 7, 2026
The BCB official said that,
“The ICC responded to our mail last night. The news published by ESPNcricinfo isn’t right. There was no conference call. They sent us an email and raised some queries. We will issue a media release shortly. No kind of ultimate issue was mentioned in the email.”
According to ESPNCricinfo, the ICC held a virtual meeting with BCB on Tuesday and informed them that their request has been denied by the ICC. The ICC advised Bangladesh that they must either travel to India to play their scheduled T20 World Cup matches or forfeit all points if they choose not to travel to India.
Bangladesh’s games occur on 3/13/26 as part of the T20 World Cup in Kolkata on three separate occasions and 1/29/26 (Saturday) Game that will be held at Wankhede Stadium, also located in Mumbai. When Bangladesh submitted their request to the ICC to have their T20 World Cup games reassigned to Sri Lanka instead of playing the games in India, it was brought up by the BCCI that this would create "major logistical issues" for the Tour Organizers and the television broadcast companies.
