New Delhi’s cricketing circles are buzzing with discontent as Bangladesh’s government has effectively sidelined the national team from the 2026 T20 World Cup. Citing security concerns, the decision was announced on Thursday, barring the Tigers from traveling to India for the marquee event. The ICC could soon name Scotland as the replacement in their official participant list.
Bangladeshi cricketers are seething, not just over the exclusion but the high-handed manner in which it was imposed. Players feel blindsided, having been excluded from any meaningful consultation before the axe fell. What was billed as a team meeting turned out to be a mere formality to inform them of a fait accompli.
A senior player, speaking anonymously, revealed the frustration: ‘We weren’t called to discuss; we were summoned to be told. Decisions were already made upstairs, and our inputs didn’t matter. This isn’t how it used to be—open dialogues have given way to top-down diktats.’ The sentiment echoes a shift from collaborative decision-making to rigid governmental oversight.
The plot thickened with direct intervention from the highest levels. Government directives overrode cricketing logic, framing the issue in terms of national security and policy. Even as captains Litton Das and Najmul Hossain Shanto pleaded the team’s case—highlighting months of rigorous preparation and recent T20 successes—their voices fell on deaf ears.
‘We’ve built a formidable T20 unit through sweat and results,’ one cricketer lamented. ‘Boycotting this will hurt our game the most. All that hard work, down the drain.’ The meeting’s aftermath saw sports advisor Asif Nazrul defending the stance to the media, accusing the ICC and Indian authorities of ignoring Bangladesh’s legitimate safety fears, from past threats to spectator vulnerabilities.
BCB president Aminul Islam Bulbul attempted to placate the squad, but the damage was done. Team management insiders admit the players are gutted, having poured everything into gearing up for the global stage. As the dust settles, this saga underscores the growing tussle between politics and sport in Bangladesh, leaving cricketers as collateral damage in a larger geopolitical chess game.
