Bhubaneswar, Jan 24: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has officially confirmed that Bangladesh will not feature in the upcoming 2026 T20 World Cup, replacing them with Scotland after nearly three weeks of tense negotiations with the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB).

The decision comes in the wake of Bangladesh’s refusal to send its team to India, citing security concerns.

On Friday evening, the ICC reportedly communicated its ruling to the BCB via email, following repeated assurances from the Bangladesh board that the government had not granted permission for the team to travel.

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The tournament is scheduled to begin on February 7, with Bangladesh originally placed in Group C. Their fixtures in Kolkata (3 matches) and Mumbai (one match) will now be contested by Scotland.

In correspondence with the ICC earlier in the week, the BCB indicated its intention to escalate the matter to the ICC’s Dispute Resolution Committee (DRC). However, the grounds for such an appeal remain unclear.

The DRC, an independent panel, is tasked with resolving disputes between member boards and the governing body. Yet, Clause 1.3 of its framework specifies that the committee does not serve as an appeal body against ICC decisions, but rather as a forum to challenge the legality of such rulings.

The ICC’s final call followed an emergency board meeting held via video conference on Wednesday. A majority of directors voted in favour of replacing Bangladesh if they continued to resist playing in India and insisted on shifting matches to Sri Lanka.

In its statement, the ICC emphasized that altering the schedule so close to the tournament was “not feasible” and warned that doing so without credible security threats could “set a precedent that would jeopardise the sanctity of future ICC events and undermine its neutrality as a global governing body.”

The BCB was given until Thursday to reconsider its stance after consulting with the government. However, both the board and the authorities reiterated their refusal to travel to India. BCB president Aminul Islam accused the ICC of “double standards,” pointing to the governing body’s handling of the BCCI’s refusal to play in Pakistan during the 2025 Champions Trophy.

The security debate intensified earlier this month when the BCCI instructed Kolkata Knight Riders to release Mustafizur Rahman from their IPL 2026 squad. Though no official reason was provided, the move coincided with deteriorating relations between India and Bangladesh.

On January 4, the BCB formally informed the ICC that its team would not participate in India due to safety concerns, a position it maintained throughout subsequent discussions.

The ICC, however, dismissed the Mustafizur issue as irrelevant to the World Cup. In its response, the governing body stated 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. This linkage has no bearing on the tournament’s security framework or the conditions governing participation in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.”

With Bangladesh’s withdrawal now confirmed, Scotland will step into Group C, taking over fixtures originally scheduled for the Tigers. The development marks a significant shake-up just days before the tournament begins, underscoring the ICC’s determination to preserve the integrity of its global events.