The International Cricket Council (ICC) has said that the 2026 T20 World Cup will be held according to the scheduled itinerary and that Bangladesh’s matches will take place in India.
The decision was taken at an ICC Board meeting convened via video conference today, following a request by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) to move the matches to Sri Lanka.
Earlier, a Cricinfo report said that the ICC had given the BCB one day to convey its final decision after consulting with the Bangladesh government. Otherwise, a replacement team would be taken in Bangladesh’s place in the T20 World Cup.
Citing three reasons, the ICC explained in a press release why it did not take into account the request by the Bangladesh government and the BCB to shift the matches to Sri Lanka due to security concerns for Bangladeshis in India.
The press release said, “In the absence of any independent security findings that materially compromise the safety of the Bangladesh team, the ICC is unable to relocate fixtures. 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.”
Regarding security, the press release further said, “The decision was taken after considering all security assessments conducted, including independent reviews, all of which indicated there was no threat to Bangladesh players, media persons, officials and fans at any of the tournament venues in India.”
The tenth T20 World Cup will begin on 7 February. The ICC said that “it was not feasible to make changes so close to the tournament.”
In addition, the ICC noted that future implications were also considered in making the decision, stating, “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.”
After Bangladesh informed on 4 January that it would not go to India, there were multiple rounds of correspondence and meetings between the ICC and the BCB over the past two weeks.
An ICC spokesperson said on the matter, "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.”
On 3 January, amid threats from extremist groups in India, the BCCI instructed that Bangladesh’s Mustafizur Rahman be withdrawn from the IPL. Bangladesh raised the question of how the Bangladesh cricket team and those associated with it could be safe to travel to play the World Cup if the safety of a single Bangladeshi player could not be ensured.
However, the ICC described the Mustafizur incident as “isolated and unrelated” and said, “Despite these efforts, the BCB maintained its position, repeatedly linking its participation in the tournament to a single, isolated and unrelated development concerning one of its player’s involvement in a domestic league. This linkage has no bearing on the tournament’s security framework or the conditions governing participation in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.”