The International Cricket Council (ICC) has officially replaced Bangladesh with Scotland for the upcoming 2026 T20 World Cup. The decision follows a three-week deadlock triggered by the Bangladesh Cricket Board’s (BCB) refusal to send its team to India, citing security concerns.

The ICC notified the BCB via email on Friday evening after Dhaka confirmed that the Bangladesh government had denied the team permission to travel for the tournament, which begins on February 7.

While the BCB has expressed intent to challenge the exclusion through the ICC’s Dispute Resolution Committee (DRC), the governing body’s board had already voted by a clear majority to move forward with a replacement team to maintain the tournament’s schedule.

The crisis began on January 4, shortly after the BCCI directed an IPL franchise to release Bangladeshi pacer Mustafizur Rahman, an act the BCB interpreted as a sign of a hostile and unsafe environment.

However, the ICC board dismissed this reasoning during an emergency video conference on Wednesday, labeling the Mustafizur incident an "isolated and unrelated development" that did not constitute a "credible security threat."

The ICC stated that altering the tournament schedule at this late stage was not "feasible" and warned that moving matches without a verified threat would "undermine its neutrality as a global governing body."

In response, BCB President Aminul Islam accused the ICC of "double standards," pointing to how the council accommodated India’s refusal to travel to Pakistan for the 2025 Champions Trophy while denying Bangladesh a similar compromise.

Scotland will now take over Bangladesh’s fixtures in Group C, playing three matches in Kolkata and one in Mumbai.

As the BCB prepares for a legal battle through the DRC, the ICC maintains that the committee cannot act as an appeal body against board decisions, potentially leaving the Tigers out of the world stage for 2026.