Scotland replace Tigers in T20 WC: ICC

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has replaced Bangladesh with Scotland in the 2026 T20 World Cup, ending nearly three weeks of tense negotiations with the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) over the board’s steadfast refusal to send its team to India on security grounds, ESPNcricinfo reports.

On Friday evening, the ICC sent an email to the BCB confirming the decision, the report said on Saturday.

The move followed the BCB informing the ICC that the Bangladesh government had not granted permission for the team to travel to India for the tournament, which begins on Feb 7.

ESPNcricinfo also said, in its communication on Thursday, the BCB indicated it intended to take the issue to the ICC’s Dispute Resolution Committee (DRC).

The grounds for this appeal and the ICC’s response remain unclear, the report added, though the Press Trust of India (PTI) has reported that the attempt had “failed”.

The DRC is an independent panel established by the ICC to resolve disputes, but under Clause 1.3, it cannot act as an appellate body against decisions made by the ICC or its authorised committees.

The reported replacement decision comes after an emergency ICC board meeting on Wednesday via video conference, in which a majority of directors voted to replace Bangladesh should they persist in seeking to move their matches to Sri Lanka.

Following the meeting, the ICC said that rescheduling the tournament “so close” to the start date was not feasible and that altering the schedule without any credible security threat could “jeopardise the sanctity of future ICC events and undermine its neutrality as a global governing body”, ESPNcricinfo reports.

Bangladesh had been drawn in Group C, with their first three matches in Kolkata and the fourth in Mumbai -- games now reassigned to Scotland, it added.

On Thursday, both the BCB and the Bangladesh government reaffirmed that the team would not travel to India.

BCB President Aminul Islam criticised the ICC for “double standards”, contrasting the handling of this situation with the BCCI’s refusal to travel to Pakistan for the 2025 Champions Trophy.

The security issue initially arose after the BCCI instructed Kolkata Knight Riders to release Mustafizur Rahman from its IPL 2026 squad on Jan 3.

The BCB cited this as part of its security concerns in a letter to the ICC the following day.

However, the ICC rejected this linkage, stating that the BCB was “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”, which “has no bearing on the tournament’s security framework”, according to ESPNcricinfo.

The ICC gave the BCB until Thursday to seek government clearance, but with no agreement reached, the decision to replace Bangladesh with Scotland was final, it reported.