Scotland replace Bangladesh at T20 World Cup

Bangladesh will boycott next month’s men’s T20 World Cup and have been replaced by Scotland.

Scotland, ranked 14 in the world, have been called up by the International Cricket Council (ICC) by virtue of being the highest-ranked team not already at the tournament and will take Bangladesh’s place in Group C.

Bangladesh had asked for their games to be switched from India citing safety concerns amid growing tensions between the countries and demanded to play them in Sri Lanka, which is co-hosting the tournament, instead.

This week the ICC rejected Bangladesh’s request, saying there was an “absence of any credible security threat” before the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) subsequently reaffirmed its position.

In a statement released on Saturday, the ICC said it had “engaged with the BCB through multiple rounds of dialogue conducted in a transparent and constructive manner”.

The ICC board said the BCB was given a final 24 hours to confirm its team would travel to India.

That deadline has now passed and ICC officials decided to press ahead with an alternative plan to invite Scotland to participate instead.

“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,” the statement added.

The ICC also said it was keen not to establish “precedents that could undermine the neutrality and fairness of ICC events”.

Cricket Scotland officials had been closely monitoring developments for the past few weeks and it is understood that internally they have taken some operational steps to prepare for this scenario.

Scotland’s players were already back in training as they had been preparing for a one-day international tri-series with Namibia and Oman in Windhoek in March.

Nevertheless it will be a tight turnaround for Scotland’s players to obtain visas to enter India with their first match scheduled to be on the opening day of the tournament, against West Indies in Kolkata on 7 February.

Also in Scotland’s group are England – who they face in Kolkata on 14 February – plus Italy and Nepal.

A fourth-place finish at last summer’s Europe Qualifier had looked to have cost Scotland a place at the 2026 T20 World Cup as the Netherlands and Italy secured the two spots on offer for the region.

Zimbabwe withdrew from the 2009 T20 World Cup – then known as the World T20 – in England for political reasons and were replaced by Scotland who were the ‘next best’ team in a pre-tournament global qualifying event.

But with qualifying for T20 World Cups, which were expanded to 20 teams in 2024, now done on a regional basis it is not quite so straightforward and this was a discretionary decision by the ICC based on rankings.

Trudy Lindblade, Cricket Scotland chief executive, said: “We are grateful to the ICC for extending this invite. This is an exciting opportunity for Scotland’s players to compete on the global stage in front of millions of supporters.

“We also acknowledge this opportunity has arisen out of challenging and unique circumstances.

“Our squad have been training for some weeks in preparation for upcoming tours and are now preparing to arrive in India imminently to acclimatise to local conditions.”

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