The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) on Thursday again makes their stance clear. Asif Nazrul, the Bangladesh government’s sports advisor, told the reporters that even after applying to the International Cricket Council (ICC), they found no clarity on the security for their players in the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2026, which will be jointly hosted by India and Sri Lanka from the first week of February 2026.
BCB applied to the council to shift their matches from India to Sri Lanka, citing security concerns after the snub of the star Bangladeshi pacer Mustafizur Rahman from the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL 2026).
From the IPL 2026 mini auction, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) bought in Rahman for a hefty price. But they had to release the pacer after BCCI’s instruction, which worsened the relationship between India and Bangladesh.
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Bangladesh cricket team remains uncertain for the ICC T20 World Cup 2026
The cricket governing body of Bangladesh took BCCI’s decision to bar Rahman from IPL 2026 very seriously and took further steps to put pressure on the Indian cricket board. Bangladesh is scheduled to play all of their group matches in Kolkata, which is now full of uncertainty. The BCB communicated with the council to shift the World Cup venues outside India, to Sri Lanka, but did not get the desired reply from the ICC, which has annoyed the BCB officials very much.
On Wednesday, it was reported that instead of granting BCB’s plea to relocate the venues, the ICC gave the Bangladesh Cricket Board 24 hours to make a decision on their participation. ICC is keeping Scotland as the standby option if the Bangladesh cricket team refuses to travel to India.
Snub of Mustafizur Rahman from IPL 2026 raised again
On Thursday, Nazrul had a meeting with the Bangladesh cricket team to discuss the current scenario. After the meeting, the official said to the reporters that they want to participate in the T20 World Cup 2026, but they want assurance about the security of the players. He raised the Mustafizur Rahman topic as well in support of his comments.
“I think we did not get justice from ICC. Whether we will play in the World Cup or not is entirely a government decision. Nothing happened in India in the recent past that suggests things have changed there (security- wise). We hope ICC will give us justice.”
“Security will be the responsibility of that country’s police and security agencies. So what has changed since that incident that would make us believe that there will be no extremist flare-ups again? They could not protect Mustafizur – so what has changed? How can we be convinced that they can protect our players, journalists and supporters?” Bangladesh government’s sports advisor Asif Nazrul raised the questions.
Nazrul claimed that the ICC did not take their request with enough seriousness and failed to convince them. He even said that the Government of India also made no effort to reassure Bangladesh about their security concerns in India.
Bangladesh government unhappy with ICC and the Government of India
“The ICC has made no effort to convince us. They ignored the real incident and only talked about their standard security procedures. They did not take a proper position on the actual grievance.
“Even the Indian government made no effort to convince us by saying the incident involving Mustafizur was isolated, or that they were sorry, or that they were taking steps. They made no effort to contact us, no effort to reassure us about the safety of our journalists, spectators and players. Therefore, there is no scope for changing our decision,” he added.
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