After Mustafizur Rahman was dropped from IPL 2026 by KKR, Bangladesh Cricket Board refused to send its team to India for T20 World Cup 2026. However, now there is one month left for the tournament to start, in such a situation it is difficult to reschedule the tournament. However, ICC has not taken a final decision on this.
Bangladesh has cited security reasons behind this. According to him, his players are in danger in India. This is not the first time that a team has refused to go to any country for an ICC tournament citing security reasons.
West Indies and Australia refused to go to Sri Lanka (1996)
Towards T20 World Cup 2026, India and Sri Lanka had jointly hosted the 1996 World Cup. At that time civil war was going on in Sri Lanka. A few days before the start of the World Cup, a car blast took place in Colombo, which created an atmosphere of fear. The result was that the Australia and West Indies teams refused to go to Sri Lanka, whereas a joint team of India and Pakistan played a friendly match in Colombo. An attempt was made to show that everything was fine, however he still remained adamant on his words. Due to this, points were deducted from West Indies and Australia, Sri Lanka had won the title in this edition.
New Zealand refused to go to Kenya and England to Zimbabwe (2003)
In 2003, the Cricket World Cup was held for the first time in the African continent. Zimbabwe, Kenya and South Africa were the hosts. At that time, the then British Prime Minister Tony Blair refused to accept the power of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, due to which the England team did not go to Zimbabwe and their points were deducted. New Zealand refused to go to Kenya citing security reasons. Both had demanded ICC to shift their matches, which was not accepted. This season Australia won the title by defeating India in the final.
Zimbabwe withdraws from T20 World Cup (2009)
The 2009 World Cup was held in England, till then relations with the host country Zimbabwe were not good. In 2008 itself, an agreement was reached between Zimbabwe and ICC that Zimbabwe would get the money without playing. Scotland took part in that tournament in their place.
Australia decided to withdraw from the World Cup (2016)
Bangladesh hosted the Under-19 World Cup in 2016, in which Australia decided to withdraw citing security reasons. Ireland’s team again played in the tournament instead of Australia.
India refuses to go to Pakistan (2025)
After 29 years, in 2025, Pakistan hosted any ICC tournament, Champions Trophy 2025 was organized in Pakistan. Although India refused to go to Pakistan due to security reasons, then it was played in hybrid model. India played its matches in Dubai, the final was also played in Dubai. Where India became champion under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma.
