Cricket Scotland are yet to be contacted by the International Cricket Council (ICC) over replacing Bangladesh in the upcoming T20 world Cup 2026 in India and Sri Lanka. The development came in after, Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) refused to travel to India citing security issues.
The BCB has written a formal letter to the ICC stating they won't be travelling to India citing security reasons and requested the apex body to shift their matches to Sri Lanka. BCB's refusal to travel to India came after Mustafizur Rahman was removed from the Indian Premier League.
According to a BBC report, the “ICC have not contacted Scotland at this stage to discuss whether they would be willing to step in.” Scotland had missed on a T20 World Cup 2026 qualification after finishing fourth in the European Qualifiers, that included a loss to minnows Italy.
While Jersey finished third behind Italy and Netherlands, Scotland's T20I rankings will allow them ahead of the third-placed team if Bangladesh decide to skip the tournament. When contacted on replacing Bangladesh in the T20 World Cup 2026, Cricket Scotland said, “We aren’t commenting on this, thanks.”
BCB dismisses ICC's deadline report
Meanwhile, the BCB has dismissed reports of an ICC deadline to decide on Bangladesh's T20 World Cup 2026 fate. After a delegation from the ICC met BCB officials in Dhaka on January 17, ESPNcricinfo reported that the final decision on Bangladesh will be taken on January 21.
Dismissing all the reports, BCB media committee chairman Amjad Hossain on Monday claimed that no such discussions took place. This was the second ICC-BCB meeting in a week.
“In regards to these talks, they haven’t mentioned a specific date or when they will let us know. They just told us that they will let us know when the next discussion will take place. Thank you,” Hossain told media as reported by The Daily Star.
What if BCB & ICC remain firm?
If both ICC and BCB remain firm on their respective stances, the T20 World Cup 2026 will see the participation of 19 teams. That means, former champions England, West Indies, Nepal and debutants Italy will start their campaigns with a win already in Group C.
