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New Delhi: The Bangladesh government on Thursday announced that its cricket team will not travel to India for the T20 World Cup 2026. After a meeting between the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), Bangladesh’s cricketers, and the government’s sports advisor in Dhaka, Bangladesh remained firm on their stance of not travelling to India for their T20 World Cup matches in India, and have demanded that their fixtures be moved to Sri Lanka.

Addressing reporters in Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, the BCB President Aminul Islam confirmed that Bangladesh won’t travel to India for the T20 World Cup. However, Islam also said that BCB will once again go back to the ICC today for a last effort, requesting a shift of venue.

BCB president Aminul Islam said: “We will go back to the ICC with our plan to play in Sri Lanka. 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. ICC is calling Sri Lanka co-hosts. They are not co-hosts. It is a hybrid model. Some of the things I heard in the ICC meeting was shocking.”

Meanwhile, government sports adviser Asif Nazrul said: “We are hopeful that ICC will give us the opportunity to play in Sri Lanka. It is our government that has decided not to go to India.”

Aminul further added, “There is no scope to change our decision. We believe we did not get justice from the ICC. We still hope that ICC will justice with us.”

“The security situation in India remains unchanged. Our security concerns did not materialise out of thin air. It stemmed from a real incident.

“The country (India) could not provide security for one of our cricketers. In that country, the cricket board is an extended part of the government, which either failed or was reluctant to give one of my cricketers protection when put under pressure by extremist groups,” he told the media.

On Wednesday, the ICC dismissed the BCB’s security concerns in India and said that Bangladesh would be replaced at the T20 World Cup if they continue to refuse to travel to India.

Meanwhile, BCB President Aminul Islam Bulbul also addressed the media and reiterated that Bangladesh still wants to play the World Cup but only in Sri Lanka. The Board will continue to pursue the Sri Lanka option with the ICC.

Speaking on the removal of Mustafizur Rahman from the Indian Premier League (IPL), he said the player was dropped from KKR due to security reasons, not because of injury, personal withdrawal, or cancellation of his No Objection Certificate (NOC) by the BCB.

“Mustafizur did not pull out on his own; he was not injured, and the BCB did not cancel his NOC,” Aminul Islam said.

“He was excluded due to security concerns. After that incident, we contacted the ICC and requested to play at an alternative venue.” he told media.