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DHAKA: The Bangladesh cricket team has decided to pull out of its fixtures scheduled in India for the ICC T20 World Cup 2026, the country’s cricket board confirmed on Sunday.
Political relations between India and Bangladesh soured after a mass uprising in Dhaka in 2024 toppled then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina, a close ally of New Delhi.
The decision came in the light of pacer Mustafizur Rahman’s abrupt exclusion from the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Kolkata Knight Riders.
A day earlier, the left-arm pacer was excluded from the KKR’s squad on the instructions of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), after an emergency meeting on Sunday, said it had “formally requested” the International Cricket Council (ICC) shift its games to Sri Lanka.
“The Board of Directors resolved that the Bangladesh National Team will not travel to India for the tournament under the current conditions,” a BCB statement read.
The board linked the decision to players’ security and safety upon the government’s advice.
Earlier, Asif Nazrul, Youth and Sports Adviser in the interim government, said that Dhaka “will not accept any insult to Bangladeshi cricket, cricketers and Bangladesh under any circumstances.”
For the unversed, the ICC T20 World Cup 2026 is scheduled begin on 7 February in India and Sri Lanka.
Bangladesh, who are slotted in Group C alongside England, West Indies, Italy, and Nepal, were scheduled to play the first three out of their four Super 8 fixtures in Kolkata.
Initially, the mega event was to be hosted solely by India, but strained relations with Pakistan — who will play their matches in Sri Lanka under the hybrid model — led to this decision.
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