ICC to replace Bangladesh at T20 World Cup if they don’t travel to India

The ICC has given the BCB one more day to confer with the Bangladesh government and decide whether their team will travel to India to play the 2026 T20 World Cup.

If Bangladesh continue to refuse to play in India due to security concerns, the ICC Board has decided to replace them with Scotland – based on team rankings – in the tournament.

The decision was taken at an ICC Board meeting on Wednesday where the majority voted in favour of a replacement team if Bangladesh stuck to their stance of not playing in India.

It is understood that out of the 15 directors present, only the PCB backed BCB. The meeting was called after the PCB wrote to the ICC and other boards on Tuesday stating it supported the BCB’s position on wanting to play in Sri Lanka, which is a co-host of the tournament.

The board meeting was attended by the directors of all the Full Member countries.

It is understood that, apart from the ICC chair Jay Shah, the participants included BCB president Aminul Islam, BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia, SLC president Shammi Silva, PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi, CA chairman Mike Baird, Zimbabwe Cricket president Tavenga Mukuhlani, CWI president Kishore Shallow, Cricket Ireland chair Brian MacNeice, Cricket New Zealand representative Roger Twose, ECB chair Richard Thompson, CSA representative Mohammed Moosajee and Cricket Afghanistan chairman Mirwais Ashraf.

Two Associate Member directors Mubashshir Usmani and Mahinda Vallipuram, ICC CEO Sanjog Gupta, ICC deputy chairman Imran Khawaja and ICC’s general manager Gaurav Saxena were also in attendance.

Bangladesh are in Group C at the T20 World Cup and are scheduled to play their first three games in Kolkata on February 7, 9 and 14 and the final one in Mumbai on February 17. (ESPNcricinfo)