The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Saturday (January 24) confirmed that Scotland will replace Bangladesh at the Men’s T20 World Cup 2026, slated to be held in India and Sri Lanka from February 7 to March 8.
Bangladesh lost their place in the 20-team tournament after refusing to travel to India, citing security reasons. The Tigers were scheduled to play all four of their group-stage matches in India (three in Kolkata and one in Mumbai).
Scotland have been called up to take Bangladesh’s place in Group C, joining England, Italy, Nepal and the West Indies.
The announcement comes after the ICC, in the absence of any credible or verifiable security threat to the Bangladesh national team in India, rejected BCB’s request to move their matches from India to Sri Lanka. Independent security assessments were carried out from internal and external experts.
In a statement released by the ICC, the Board made the difficult decision that it was not feasible to meet the BCB’s requests so close to the competition.
"The decision follows an extensive process undertaken by the ICC to address concerns raised by the BCB regarding the hosting of its scheduled matches in India," ICC's statement reads.
"Over a period of more than three weeks, the ICC engaged with the BCB through multiple rounds of dialogue conducted in a transparent and constructive manner, including meetings held both via video conference and in-person.
"As part of this process, the ICC reviewed the concerns cited by the BCB, commissioned and considered independent security assessments from internal and external experts, and shared detailed security and operational plans covering federal and state arrangements, as well as enhanced and escalating security protocols for the event. These assurances were reiterated at several stages, including during discussions involving the ICC Business Corporation (IBC) Board.
"The ICC’s assessments concluded that there was no credible or verifiable security threat to the Bangladesh national team, officials or supporters in India.
"In light of these findings, and after careful consideration of the broader implications, the ICC determined that it was not appropriate to amend the published event schedule.
After a meeting on Wednesday (January 21), the BCB was given a 24-hour deadline to confirm whether its team would travel to India as scheduled. As no confirmation was received within the given timeframe, the global governing body "proceeded in line with its established governance and qualification processes to identify a replacement team."
Scotland are the next-highest ranked T20I team that had originally missed T20 World Cup qualification. They are currently ranked 14th, which in fact is ahead of competing teams Namibia, the United Arab Emirates, Nepal, USA, Canada, Oman and Italy.
(With ICC Inputs)
