CHENNAI: Even as the Bangladesh Cricket Board has written to the ICC Dispute Resolution Committee (DRC), it may be only a matter of time before the global governing body replaces them with Scotland. It is understood that the ICC might not make any other statement until the final decision is made.
A day after standing firm on their decision of not travelling to India, BCB wrote to the committee, appealing against the ICC's decision to uphold the original T20 World Cup schedule. However, per the Terms of Reference ICC document for the DRC, Bangladesh's appeal cannot be heard by the committee.
According to the ICC rules, the committee cannot hear on the matters where the ICC or the ICC board had already made a decision. In this case, the ICC board on Wednesday voted against Bangladesh request to move matches out of India. The point 1.3 of the ICC document reads: "The Committee shall not operate as an appeal body against decisions of the ICC or any decision-making body established under the ICC’s Memorandum and Articles of Association or under any rules and regulations of the ICC, but shall operate as the sole forum and procedure for challenges to the lawfulness of such decisions, with the Committee exercising a supervisory jurisdiction."
The Committee, chaired by Michael Beloff KC, involves five independent lawyers, an Independent Code of Conduct Commission Representatives, a Chair of Audit Committee, an Ethics Officer and a management support. Its responsibility is to "fairly and promptly" resolve any disputes that arise according to procedures appropriate to the nature of each dispute and in a manner complementary to other methods of dispute resolution applicable to the activities of the ICC, its officers and directors, its Members and other relevant persons. It is established in order to help achieve that objective by providing independent panels to hear and resolve, by arbitration, disputes within the established scope.
Meanwhile, BCB and Bangladesh players have expressed keen interest to play the World Cup despite the uncertainty. The Board and the government, however, do not want to travel to India and they conveyed the decision to the players in a meeting on Thursday. This has left the players in distraught, and understandably so, as they do not want to miss out on playing a World Cup. Missing out on the event will have a massive financial blow to the country as well. In 2024, teams went away with a minimum earning of $225,000 apart from an extra $31,154 for each match won, excluding the knockouts.
It all began on January 3, 2026 when Kolkata Knight Riders dropped Mustafizur Rahman at the directive of the BCCI. This decision came amidst protests over inclusion of Rahman in the IPL especially after deteriorating diplomatic relationship between the two countries and targetted killing of Hindus in Bangladesh. Soon, BCB said that they would not travel to India citing security reasons and that they want their matches moved to Sri Lanka.
After multiple back-and-forth negotiations, BCB stood their ground while ICC remained steadfast on not changing the schedule. Earlier this week, two ICC officials had meetings with BCB but things came to a standstill as the global cricketing body did not agree to move the matches. The ICC had apparently shared its internal security assessment which indicates no specific or heightened threat to Bangladesh. However, Bangladesh did not cede ground, despite ICC's ultimatum on Wednesday to adhere to the original schedule. On Thursday, after meeting with the government and the players, Bangladesh 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 who has decided not to go to India."
ICC, on its part, said that in the absence of any independent security findings that materially compromise the safety of the Bangladesh team, they cannot relocate fixtures. "Doing so would carry significant logistical and scheduling consequences for other teams and fans worldwide, and would also create far-reaching precedent-related challenges that risk undermining the neutrality, fairness, and integrity of ICC governance," ICC spokesperson had said in a statement.