On Tuesday (January 20), Bangladesh's national sports adviser Asif Nazrul has once again stated that the national men's side would not travel to India for their T20 World Cup 2026 matches, meaning that a withdrawal is on the cards unless the International Cricket Council (ICC) finally relents to the Bangladesh Cricket Board's request for relocation of matches to Sri Lanka.
The BCB and ICC have been in constant conversations over the last two weeks but there has been no real sign of progress. On Saturday (January 17), ICC's key delegates even travelled to Dhaka to have an emergency meeting with their BCB counterparts. There was an option floated by the BCB as a potential solution and that involved swapping Bangladesh's group with that of Ireland's.
However, that request has also been turned down as the ICC had already assured Cricket Ireland of not changing their schedule in any manner. Logistically, this would have been the only possible solution for Bangladesh's relocation request if we had to factor in the inconvenience factor but ICC have firmly rejected that proposal too.
The ball is still in BCB's court whether it wants the Bangladesh team to participate or not. As all four league games are in India, continuing the current stance virtually means a withdrawal from the mega tournament for Bangladesh. Nazrul was adamant about Bangladesh's stance and hoped that ICC would change their mind. He also cited the example of relocating Pakistan's matches to defend BCB's stance.
"In the past there are examples that Pakistan said that they will not travel to India and ICC changed the venue," said Nazrul.
"We have asked to change the venue on logical ground and we cannot be pressurized to play in India by putting illogical pressure."
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If Bangladesh back out, the next higher ranked team is Scotland who would be frontrunners to be the replacement team, if it were to come to that scenario. While there are more than 24 hours left to sort things out, Bangladesh are currently on track to pulling out from the tournament. It would be an unprecedented development although Nazrul seemed surprised at the suggestion of Scotland's inclusion.
"I am not aware that Scotland will be included in our place (in the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup). If the ICC bows to pressure from the Indian Cricket Board and tries to impose pressure on us by setting unreasonable conditions, we will not accept those conditions."
Reports state that January 21 is the deadline date given by the ICC to BCB for informing their final stance on participation.