Bangladesh rejected after request to relocate T20 World Cup 2026 matches out of India

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has rejected a reject from Bangladesh to relocate the nation’s matches from India at the upcoming T20 World Cup.

Bangladesh had requested that their tournament matches be held in Sri Lanka amid escalating tensions with India that have rumbled for several weeks and left the side’s participation in doubt.

The ICC decision, made at board meeting on Wednesday, has stressed, though, that Bangladesh will play their matches as scheduled in India or be replaced by Scotland, based on team rankings, at the World Cup next month.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) had cited security reasons in requesting that they not travel to India. It followed the releasing of Bangladeshi left-arm seamer Mustafizur Rahman from his contract with the Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League (IPL), seemingly instigated by reported attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh and strained ties between Dhaka and Delhi.

The T20 World Cup will already be co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka, with all of Pakistan’s fixtures held in the island nation. Reports suggest that Pakistan backed the BCB’s appeal at the board meeting, but the ICC board concluded that there was “no threat” to Bangladesh players, media personnel or officials if they were to travel to India for the tournament.

The event is scheduled to begin on 7 February, with Bangladesh’s first game against the West Indies in Kolkata on the opening day. They are also scheduled to play England at Eden Gardens on 14 February, as well as fixtures against Italy and Nepal.

An ICC spokesperson said: "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.

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“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.

“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. 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.

“The ICC remains committed to acting in good faith, upholding consistent standards, and safeguarding the collective interests of the global game."