Dhaka/New Delhi, Jan 22 (UNI) Bangladesh Youth and Sports Adviser Asif Nazrul said on Thursday that there is “no scope” for the country’s cricket team to travel to India for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup.
Addressing press persons after a meeting with Bangladeshi team players and Bangladesh Cricket Board(BCB) officials, Nazrul said that as the “security situation in India has not changed”, there is no scope for the country’s cricketers to travel there to participate in the ICC T20 World Cup.
“There is no scope to change our decision. We believe we did not get justice from the ICC. We still hope that ICC will do justice with us,” Nazrul was quoted by The Daily Star as saying.
Nazrul accused the Indian government of failing to provide security to a particular Bangladeshi cricketer
“The security situation in India remains unchanged. Our security concerns did not materialise out of thin air. It stemmed from [India]. The country [India] could not provide security for one of our cricketers. In that country, the cricket board is an extended part of the government, which either failed or was reluctant to give one of my cricketers protection when put under pressure by extremist groups,” he added.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) had on Wednesday ruled out any change to the schedule or venues of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, stating that comprehensive security assessments found no credible threat to the Bangladesh team, officials, media or fans at any of the tournament venues in India.
“The decision was taken after considering all security assessments conducted, including independent reviews, all of which indicated there was no threat to Bangladesh players, media persons, officials and fans at any of the tournament venues in India,” the ICC had said in a statement following its Board meeting.
The ICC Board noted that making changes so close to the tournament was not feasible and warned that altering the schedule without any verified security threat could set a precedent that would undermine the sanctity of future ICC events and the body’s neutrality as a global governing organisation.
The statement added that the ICC management has held several rounds of correspondence and meetings with the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) in an effort to resolve the issue, sharing detailed information on the event’s security framework, including layered federal and state law-enforcement support.
The ICC’s decision comes after weeks of uncertainty over Bangladesh’s participation in the tournament. The Bangladesh Cricket Board(BCB), in coordination with the Bangladesh government, had written to the ICC on January 4 stating that it would not send its team to India citing security concerns.
The move followed the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) instructing IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders to release Bangladesh fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman from their squad for IPL 2026, though no specific reason was provided for the directive.
Since then, the BCB and the Bangladesh government have maintained that the team would not travel to India and instead sought to play their matches in Sri Lanka.
During interactions with the ICC last week, the BCB also requested that Bangladesh’s group be swapped with another team such as Ireland, which is scheduled to play all its group matches in Sri Lanka.
The ICC rejected that request. “Over the past several weeks, the ICC has engaged with the BCB in sustained and constructive dialogue, with the clear objective of enabling Bangladesh’s participation in the tournament,” the ICC said. It added that the BCB repeatedly linked its participation to “a single, isolated and unrelated development” concerning one player’s involvement in a domestic league, stating that such a linkage had no bearing on the tournament’s security framework or participation conditions.
“The ICC’s venue and scheduling decisions are guided by objective threat assessments, host guarantees, and the tournament’s agreed terms of participation, which apply uniformly to all 20 competing nations,” the statement said, adding that relocating fixtures would have significant logistical and scheduling consequences for other teams and fans worldwide.
Bangladesh are placed in Group C of the T20 World Cup and are scheduled to play their first three matches in Kolkata on February 7, 9 and 14, before their final group match in Mumbai on February 17.
