BCB writes second letter to ICC, reiterates T20 World Cup venue change request

DHAKA: The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) wrote a second letter to the International Cricket Council (ICC) to request referring its case to the independent dispute resolution committee, as it reiterated its unwillingness to travel to India for the T20 World Cup 2026.

The board reiterated its stance in a fresh letter to the cricket governing body two days after the letter rejected the country’s demand to shift their matches at next month’s T20 World Cup outside India.

In the letter, the board emphasised that Bangladesh has consistently maintained its position not to play any matches in India. Citing the security concerns, the BCB once again stresses that it would not send its team to India. The development came the following day, the BCB officials, including its President Aminul Islam, Adviser for the Ministry of Youth & Sports, Asif Nazrul and several national cricketers – Nurul Hasan, Shamim Hossain, Hasan Mahmud, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Jaker Ali, Tanzid Hasan and Saif Hassan – met to decide the side’s future course of action.

Following the meeting, the BCB announced that it would uphold its demand to move its national men’s cricket team’s T20 World Cup 2026 matches from India to Sri Lanka. “We will go back to the ICC with our plan to play in Sri Lanka,” Aminul said. “They did give us a 24-hour ultimatum but a global body can’t really do that. ICC will miss out on 200 million people watching the World Cup. It will be their loss.” “We are hopeful that ICC will give us the opportunity to play in Sri Lanka. It is our government who has decided not to go to India.” The announcement came after the ICC formally rejected Bangladesh’s request for the venue change after a virtually-held Board meeting on January 21 and shared that the 20-team tournament will be played as per the published schedule from February 7 to March 8. Monitoring Desk