The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB)’s president, Aminul Islam, said on Monday (January 5) that the board doesn’t feel ‘secure’ about sending the men’s team to India for the 2026 T20 World Cup. Islam said the board is awaiting a reply from the International Cricket Council (ICC)
The BCB’s relations with its Indian counterpart and World Cup co-host, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), have gone sour since the latter decided to direct IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to release star Bangladeshi pacer Mustafizur Rahman from its roster for the 2026 season.
The BCCI indirectly cited the increasingly violent anti-Bangladesh sentiment in India, which is in turn connected to the attacks against the Hindu minority in the neighboring
nation.
“You know that we, along with all the directors of the cricket board, held two meetings before taking this decision, and at this moment we do not feel secure sending our team to India to play the World Cup,” Aminul told reporters on Monday, as quoted by Cricbuzz.
“So we wrote a letter to the ICC, and in the letter we clearly stated what we wanted to say. Because to us, security appeared to be a major concern and that is what we are following. We have sent an email to the ICC and we are expecting them to tell us to have a meeting with them soon where we will express our concern. But what our next step will be depends on the reply to the email we have sent. We do not know what feedback will come (from ICC)… We are not communicating with BCCI because this is an ICC event. We are communicating with the ICC,” he said.
It needs to be seen if and how could the ICC change the schedule with just over a month to go for the marquee, multi-national event.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh government has also gotten involved in the sporting mess. The broadcasting wing wrote to all local TV channels informing them that the IPL was indefinitely banned in the country. Islam said BCB supports the decision.
“This is India’s domestic cricket, and in domestic cricket, whom to show or not to show is the decision of our government. From our side, since the government, through the Ministry of Information, has taken this decision, we have nothing to say. However, it is true that we support the decision taken by the government,” he said.
