ICC replaces Bangladesh with Scotland in T20 World Cup, reiterates ‘no threat’

The ICC on Saturday confirmed that Scotland has replaced Bangladesh in the upcoming T20 World Cup, saying the "difficult decision" was taken since it was not feasible to meet BCB's request to shift their matches to Sri Lanka so close to the tournament.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) refused to let its team travel to India citing security concerns in the wake of Mustafizur Rahman's ouster from the Indian Premier League.

Pakistan to pull out of tournament?

Pakistan Cricket Board chairman and the country’s interior minister Mohsin Naqvi has indicated that Pakistan could rethink its participation in the T20 World Cup after Bangladesh were ejected from the tournament by the ICC, reported Dawn News.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) maintained that there was no verifiable security threat to the Bangladesh national team, officials or supporters in India and it was not appropriate to amend the published event schedule.

Scotland's entry into the tournament, starting February 7, ended the suspense over the fate of Bangladesh in the event after BCB stayed adamant in its demand and even suggested that its group be swapped with Ireland's.

At the ICC Board meeting on Wednesday, Bangladesh lost it proposal to shift matches by an overwhelming 14-2 margin with only Pakistan supporting its cause.

"Bangladesh will no longer compete in the upcoming ICC Men's T20 World Cup, after the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) refused to participate in the tournament per the published match schedule," ICC said in a statement.

The ICC said it had given BCB a 24-hour time-frame to confirm whether its team would participate in India as scheduled.

"As no confirmation was received within the deadline, the ICC proceeded in line with its established governance and qualification processes to identify a replacement team." "Scotland are the next-highest ranked T20I team that had originally missed T20 World Cup qualification. They are currently ranked 14th, which in fact is ahead of competing teams Namibia, the United Arab Emirates, Nepal, USA, Canada, Oman and Italy.

The implications of this unceremonious ouster will also badly hit BCB's coffers. The board will lose $500,000 participation fee that each nation gets. -- PTI