The ICC is preparing to move on without Bangladesh at the Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 after the Bangladesh Cricket Board failed to reply within a 24-hour ultimatum, opening the door for Scotland to be invited as a replacement. The standoff has now blurred the lines between warning and consequence. The deadline has elapsed, the paperwork is effectively waiting, and the tournament’s contingency plan looks ready to become the main plan.
Jay Shah, chairman of ICC. (AFP)
According to Cricbuzz, the ICC had given BCB a 24-hour window to confirm whether Bangladesh would travel to India for the tournament. That window expired without any formal communication reaching Dubai, even as reports suggested Dhaka had been in talks internally with government authorities and player representatives.
From ICC’s standpoint, the decision tree is blunt. A confirmation from Bangladesh ends the matter. A refusal – or silence that functions like one – triggers a replacement call-up with Scotland being the team to be moved in the line-up. The report also says that the ICC, having waited through the final stretch for clarity from Bangladesh, is now set to act swiftly to formalise Scotland’s participation.
What sharpens the sense of inevitability is that the ICC board has already voted on the issue, leaving very little room for a plate, emotional pivot. BCB president Aminul Islam spoke about the possibility of a “last-minute miracle”, but the situation has drifted past the stage where optimism counts as strategy.
Bangladesh’s position across Thursday, January 22, remained unchanged: they would not travel, citing security concerns for players. The strongest public framing of that stance came from Bangladesh government sports advisor Asif Nazrul, who said the decision not to play in India was taken by the government. He argued that assurances from the ICC were not enough because the board does not have its own country and referenced a past instance where, in Bangladesh’s view, a player was not kept safe despite expectations around security.
In practical terms, the next few hours are about the process rather than persuasion: replacement protocols, confirmation timelines, and logistics. For Scotland, it’s the kind of call that changes a cycle overnight – from planning bilateral windows to prepping for the biggest tournament of the year. For Bangladesh, it is a high-stakes absence that will echo far beyond one event, because global tournaments have long memories, even when standoffs don’t.