T20 World Cup 2026 Row: Will BCB's Push for DRC Intervention Force a Venue Change from India?

Bangladesh Cricket Board refuses to play T20 World Cup matches in India over security concerns, demands shift to Sri Lanka. ICC rejects the request. BCB appeals to the independent Dispute Resolution Committee, leaving its participation uncertain.

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) refused to change its stance despite the International Cricket Council (ICC) rejecting its request to change the venue for the national group stage matches from India to Sri Lanka for the upcoming edition of the T20 World Cup due to security concerns.

On Wednesday, the ICC officially rejected the BCB’s request for shifting Bangladesh’s group stage matches to Sri Lanka after 14 out of 16 members voted against the move, and the world governing body of cricket gave an additional day to the board to take a final decision on their participation in the marquee event, which will begin in February in India and Sri Lanka.

Despite the ICC’s rejection of a change of venue, Bangladesh continued to remain firm on its stance and boycotted its scheduled matches in India, insisting that the national team would not travel to the neighbouring nation under the current arrangements unless fixtures were moved to Sri Lanka or another neutral venue.

BCB Not Backing Down on its Demand

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is apparently unwilling to back down on its demand after the ICC’s board rejected the request and issued an ultimatum that either play in India or risk replacement. The BCB president, Aminul Islam, officially confirmed that Bangladesh will not travel to India for the marquee event due to ongoing security concerns and would continue to press for a venue change.

Islam further accused ICC and BCCI of double standards in treating Bangladesh’s security concerns differently from similar requests by other member nations in the past, citing the example of Pakistan allowed neutral venues for ICC events due to security and diplomatic considerations, while claiming that the board’s appeal was dismissed without proper consideration.

However, on Wednesday, the ICC stated that there was no ‘credible threat’ in India, adding that the change of venue so close to the marquee event could pose an unprecedented threat to future events.

The crisis over Bangladesh’s T20 World Cup participation began after the pacer Mustafizur Rahman was released from the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) squad ahead of the IPL 2026 as per the instructionsby the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), apparently due to the ongoing religious and political tensions between India and Bangladesh.

BCB Escalates Dispute

A day after officially boycotting Bangladesh’s scheduled T20 World Cup 2026 group stage matches in India, it was reported that the country’s cricket board has written a fresh letter to the International Cricket Council (ICC) with a request of independent review of the security assessment and decision-making process behind the venue allocation.

As per the report by the Times of India (TOI), the Bangladesh Cricket Board urged the ICC to refer the matter to its independent Dispute Resolution Committee for a fair evaluation of Bangladesh’s security concerns and fair allocation of the venue. Since Sri Lanka is the co-host alongside India for the T20 World Cup 2026, the BCB argued that shifting the group stage matches would be a workable and feasible solution without disrupting the tournament’s schedule.

The ICC has an independent Dispute Resolution Committee in place to handle the governance-related issues and disagreements between the members and the world governing body of cricket.

The committee, consisting of independent lawyers, reviews the disputes related to ICC issues and provides non-bidding recommendations aimed at resolving the conflicts in accordance with the ICC’s constitution and governance framework.

Will DRC Intervene in BCB–ICC Standoff?

The reason behind the Bangladesh Cricket Board’s urging for an independent Dispute Resolution Committee’s intervention is that Bangladesh has repeatedly argued that the ICC’s rejection of their venue-shift request ignored their ongoing security concerns and the broader political context, and wanted a neutral body to assess the decision and ensure consideration of their demand.

However, the independent committee’s recommendations are non-binding in nature, as the final decision completely rests on the ICC board members, who are not obligated to the DRC findings. Since Bangladesh’s demand does not come under the ICC-approved exceptions for venue changes, the board is not required to act on the DRC’s recommendations.

This situation leaves the standoff between the BCB and ICC unresolved, with Bangladesh’s participation in India for the upcoming edition of the T20 World Cup 2026 still hanging in the balance.

Since Bangladesh is unwilling to participate in the T20 World Cup 2026 in India, Scotland could replace them in Group C, which consists of the West Indies, England, and Ireland. It remains to be seen how the ICC will handle the situation and whether a replacement team will be officially confirmed before the tournament begins.