Bangladesh set to boycott T20 World Cup 2026 — Reports
It is expected that Bangladesh will refuse to participate in the 10th edition of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup. According to reports, Bangladesh is refusing to travel to India and is also boycotting the T20 World Cup 2026. For the past few days, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has been consistently demanding that its matches be shifted from India to Sri Lanka. However, the ICC has rejected this demand.
It is almost certain that if Bangladesh does not travel to India for the World Cup, Scotland will participate in their place. Bangladesh is placed in Group C along with two-time champions West Indies, Nepal, Italy, and England. They are scheduled to play their first three matches at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, while their last group stage match is scheduled to be played at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
Asif Nazrul, the sports advisor to the Bangladesh government, said on Thursday that the ICC and the BCCI have made no effort to reassure the Bangladesh Cricket Board regarding the security of the team's players at the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup, which is being held in India and Sri Lanka.
Furthermore, he stated that they have not received a fair hearing on their request to shift the matches to Sri Lanka. Nazrul, who met with national cricketers on Thursday, told reporters that they are not ready to change their stance and the Bangladesh team will not travel to India due to security concerns. He said,
"The purpose of the meeting was simply to explain to the players why the government took this decision and give them the context. I believe they understood. That was the purpose—nothing else.
"I think we did not get justice from the ICC. Whether we will play in the World Cup or not is entirely a government decision. Nothing happened in India in the recent past that suggests things have changed there (security-wise). We hope ICC will give us justice... A world organisation cannot impose a 24-hour ultimatum. We will keep fighting."
Additionally, he said that every cricket-loving nation wants to play the World Cup. But in the country where nation’s player will not be safe, we will not send them. He also talked about Mustafizur Rahman’s exclusion from the IPL.
"All of us want to play the T20 World Cup because our players have earned this through hard work. But the security risk situation in India has not changed. The security concerns did not arise from speculation or theoretical analysis. They arose from a real incident, where one of our country's top players was forced to bow to extremists, and the Indian cricket board asked him to leave India. Simply put, he was told to leave.
"Now this ICC tournament is being held in India. No matter how much the ICC says there is no security risk, the ICC does not have its own country. The country where my player was not safe, and where the Indian cricket board, which is an extended arm of the government, failed or was unwilling to provide him security under pressure from extremists—that is the country hosting this tournament.
At the end, he also warned the ICC that Bangladesh has a population of 200 million people, and without the Bangladesh national cricket team's participation, the ICC will lose a huge audience.
“Bangladesh is a cricket-loving nation. If a country of nearly 200 million people misses the World Cup, the ICC will lose a huge audience. Cricket is entering the Olympics in 2028, Brisbane in 2032, and India is bidding for 2036. Excluding a major cricket-loving country like Bangladesh would be a failure. We are still fighting. Our only demand is to play the World Cup—but not in India. We want to play in Sri Lanka or another neutral venue. Our team is ready."
So far, there has been no official decision from the ICC. But it is almost certain that Bangladesh's participation in the World Cup would now require nothing short of a miracle.
