Bangladesh firm on not playing T20 World Cup in India despite risk of exclusion

A day after Bangladesh were told by the ICC that they would be replaced at the upcoming T20 World Cup if they continued to refuse to play in India, Bangladesh have remained firm in wanting their matches moved to Sri Lanka.

"Let me tell you clearly. It is the government's decision not to play in India due to security concerns," Bangladesh's sports adviser Asif Nazrul said on Thursday. The BCB said it would keep communicating with the ICC on the issue.

This decision, announced after a meeting in Dhaka between Nazrul, BCB president Aminul Islam and CEO Nizamuddin, and several national team players, means they risk not participating in the tournament beginning on February 7. Nurul Hasan, Shamim Hossain, Hasan Mahmud, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Jaker Ali, Tanzid Hasan and Saif Hassan were among the cricketers present. ESPNcricinfo understands the prevailing sentiment among the players was that they wanted to play the World Cup.

"The security threat is not a theory. It is a real incident," Nazrul said, referencing Mustafizur Rahman's removal from the IPL. "The BCCI bowed down to pressure from fundamental groups, and kicked him out of their tournament.

"The ICC tournament is being held in India where the BCCI can't give security to one of our players. It will be the responsibility of their security agencies. How can we be convinced that they can provide security to our cricketers, fans and journalists?

"The ICC hasn't even tried to convince us. They only talked about their standard security plan, rather than address our specific grievance. The India government didn't even try to convince us. They didn't call the Mustafiz incident an isolated incident. They didn't say sorry about the Mustafiz incident, or even try to communicate with us. So there's no scope for changing our decision. We didn't get justice from the ICC, they are still not allowing us to play in Sri Lanka. There are many instances that the venue has been changed due to security risk. We are hopeful the ICC will take into account our genuine concern, and give us the opportunity to play in the World Cup."

Players attending the meeting were given the floor briefly and all were in favour of playing at the T20 World Cup. A number of them went in feeling the government's decision was a foregone conclusion. They are believed to have made the case that the event is a big opportunity for players. But both government officials and the BCB did not budge from their stance.

Bangladesh are currently in Group C along with England, Italy, West Indies and Nepal, and are scheduled to play their first three games in Kolkata and their last one in Mumbai. They play West Indies on February 7, the opening day of the tournament.

On Wednesday, after an ICC board meeting, the ICC had formally rejected Bangladesh's request to play their matches in Sri Lanka instead of India on grounds of security and gave them 24 hours to speak to their government and get back.

The issue of security arose after the BCCI, on January 3, instructed Kolkata Knight Riders to release Mustafizur from their IPL 2026 squad. Although no reason was stated for that directive, it came amid deteriorating relations between India and Bangladesh. On January 4, the BCB wrote to the ICC after consultation with the government that the Bangladesh team would not travel to India for its T20 World Cup matches due to security concerns, a stance it stuck to through several subsequent discussions with the ICC.

The ICC, however, rejected the Mustafizur issue as a valid concern, saying 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."