The Bangladesh cricket board said on Thursday that the team would not play the ICC men's T20 World Cup in India, but "still hopeful of justice" from the ICC.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board met its cricketers along with the government's sports adviser in Dhaka on Thursday, following which the country reiterated that it will not budge from its demand of not travelling to India to participate in the World Cup.
"We will go back to the ICC with our plan to play in Sri Lanka. They did give us a 24 hour ultimatum but a global body can't really do that," BCB president Aminul Islam said in a press conference.
"ICC will miss out on 200 million people watching the World Cup. It will be their loss ... ICC is calling Sri Lanka co-hosts. They are not co-hosts. It is a hybrid model. Some of the things I heard in the ICC meeting were shocking," Islam said.
On Wednesday, the International Cricket Council had given BCB final 24 hours to decide if it wants to rethink its position of not sending its players to India to play in the World Cup. The ICC said that if the BCB did not change its stand then the team will be removed from the World Cup and Scotland will be invited to participate in the tournament.
"While our cricketers have worked hard to qualify for the World Cup, the security risk regarding playing in India remains unchanged. This concern is not based on abstract analysis," Nazrul said. "We are not giving up hope yet; our team is ready. We expect the ICC to provide justice by considering our genuine security risks and allowing us to play in Sri Lanka," he added.
The BCB decided not to send its players to India to play in the World Cup after the BCCI directed IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders to remove Bangladesh seamer Mustafizur Rahman from their 2026 squad, an instruction that angered Bangladesh cricket stakeholders.
Bangladesh are expected to play three matches in Kolkata and one game in Mumbai for the T20 World Cup. Bangladesh are placed in Group C, alongside England, Italy, Nepal and West Indies. As per the existing schedule, they are slated to play three matches in Kolkata on Feb. 7, 9 and 14, followed by a final group game in Mumbai on Feb. 17.
The World Cup is being co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka and commences from Feb.7.
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