The International Cricket Council (ICC) has confirmed that Bangladesh has been officially ruled out of the Men’s T20 World Cup 2026, with Scotland named as the replacement.
Bangladesh has decided to pull out of the marquee event, citing security concerns and saying that their concerns weren’t properly addressed by the Sports governing body.
Bangladesh had demanded ICC shift its group stage games from India to Sri Lanka, which was later backed by Pakistan.
The dispute started after Mustafizur Rahman has been removed from the KKR squad for the IPL 2026 due to geopolitical tension between the neighbours.
On January 24, the ICC has wrote a letter to Bangladesh Cricket Board saying that their participation has been dismissed and Scotland has been named as replacement.
The Council had a meeting in Dubai on Friday under chairman Jay Shah to decide on the fate of Bangladesh’s participation in the tournament.
Bangladesh had written to ICC to refer the dispute. However, the committee cannot act as an appeal forum and decided to go ahead with ICC’s final call.
The BCB has decided to hold a press conference on Thursday after a meeting with the players to boycott the upcoming ICC event.
Scotland who has played five T20 World Cups so far including the previous editions of 2022 and 2024, will be featuring in the 2026 edition of the tournament.
Scotland were part of the European qualifiers, but they finished behind Italy, the Netherlands and Jersey. Scotland will be replacement choice for Bangladesh due to their ICC rankings.
Scotland will now enter Group C alongside England, the West Indies, Italy and Nepal.
Scotland will play their first match against West Indies on February 07 in Kolkata. They will be facing Italy and England on Febraury 09 and 14 in the same venue.
Scotland will play their final group stage games against Nepal on February 17 at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.
