The International Cricket Council (ICC) took a surprising step on Thursday and sent their delegates to the Eden Gardens in Kolkata for inspection. This is the venue where Bangladesh are scheduled to play three of their group stage stages if they do not get replaced by Scotland in the 2026 T20 World Cup.
ICC have given an ultimatum to BCB
The visit came after the day when ICC gave the final ultimatum to the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) to play their share of T20 World Cup matches at the scheduled venues. The apex council had told the BCB to inform the Bangladeshi government that continued refusal to travel to India will result in the team being removed from the competition and getting replaced by another team. BCB are yet to come up with their final stance on the matter..
On the other hand, the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) held a special meeting with the Kolkata Police top cops for the security related issues as raised by BCB on Thursday. The Kolkata police has ensured special security for all the teams.
Meanwhile, the BCB have so far remained firm on their stance of not travelling to India for the T20 World Cup. They have rejected the idea ever since tensions escalated between them and BCCI following the release of Mustafizur Rahman from Kolkata Knight Riders' IPL 2026 squad.
BCB yet to make final decision
BCB had previously written twice to the ICC and had requested them to shift their venues for the tournament to Sri Lanka. They felt that there were security concerns in India and thus were not in favour to travel to the country. However, the global cricket body rejected their demands as according to the independent assessments that they conducted, the security risk in India was manageable. The ball is now in BCB's court and now they have to decide whetehre they want to participate in the T20 World Cup or not.
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If Bangladesh do end up not participating, Scotland is the frontrunner to take their spot in the tournament. While Scotland had failed to qualify through the European regional qualifiers, they are the highest-ranked T20I team not included in the 20-team tournament.