Bangladesh players await the television umpire's decision for the wicket of Sri Lanka's Kusal Perera during the Asia Cup cricket match between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka at Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025. (AP Photo)
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has told the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) that if they don’t agree to send their team to India for the T20 World Cup, they will be replaced by Scotland for the tournament starting next month.
It is learnt that the world body, headed by chairman Jay Shah, took the opinion of its Board on this matter and apart from Bangladesh and Pakistan, everyone voted in favour of having a replacement team – Scotland – if the BCB didn’t agree to the original itinerary.
Bangladesh has been firm in their stand since the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) instructed IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders to release Bangladesh pacer Mustafuzir Rahman, who had been acquired in the auction last month, citing ‘recent developments’.
BCB has been claiming that the situation is not conducive for their team, officials or fans to travel to India for the tournament.
According to the original schedule, Bangladesh’s matches are scheduled in Kolkata and Mumbai.
The decision was taken following an ICC Board meeting (via video-conference) convened to discuss the way forward after the BCB stuck to its stance of moving its matches to Sri Lanka.
“The decision was taken after considering all security assessments conducted, including independent reviews, all of which indicated there was no threat to Bangladesh players, mediapersons, officials and fans at any of the tournament venues in India,” a press release stated.
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.
As per the press release, the ICC management had 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.
“Over the past several weeks, the ICC has engaged with the BCB in sustained and constructive dialogue, with the clear objective of enabling Bangladesh’s participation in the tournament. During this period, the ICC has shared detailed inputs, including independent security assessments, comprehensive venue-level security plans and formal assurances from the host authorities, all of which consistently concluded that there is no credible or verifiable threat to the safety or security of the Bangladesh team in India,” an ICC spokesperson said in a statement.
Calling the Mustafizur episode a “single, isolated and unrelated development concerning one of its player’s involvement in a domestic league”, it said that it has no bearing on the tournament’s security framework or the conditions governing participation in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
“The ICC’s venue and scheduling decisions are guided by objective threat assessments, host guarantees, and the tournament’s agreed terms of participation, which apply uniformly to all 20 competing nations. In the absence of any independent security findings that materially compromise the safety of the Bangladesh team, the ICC is unable to relocate fixtures,” it said.
“Doing so would carry significant logistical and scheduling consequences for other teams and fans worldwide, and would also create far-reaching precedent-related challenges that risk undermining the neutrality, fairness, and integrity of ICC governance.”
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