The International Cricket Council (ICC) board meeting to take a final decision on Bangladesh’s demand to move their ICC T20 World Cup 2026 matches out of India has already begun. Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) were given a deadline till Wednesday January 21 to decide whether they want to play their league matches in Kolkata and Mumbai or ready to get replaced in the tournament which begins on February 7. According to a report in ESPNCricinfo website the ICC board have taken a vote on whether Bangladesh should be replaced in the T20 World Cup 2026 if they refuse to play their matches in India. In what will be a big blow to BCB majority of the ICC board has voted that Bangladesh should be replaced by Scotland if they refuse to play in India. “It is understood the ICC has told the BCB to inform the Bangladesh government that if Bangladesh continues to refuse to travel to India to play its matches in the 2026 T20 World Cup then they will be replaced by another team at the tournament. That decision was followed by a vote where the majority of the ICC Board was in favour of having a replacement” the ESPNCricinfo report stated.   SCOTLAND TO REPLACE BANGLADESH IN WORLD CUP - ICC Board has voted to replace Bangladesh if they refuse to travel to India. - BCB given one final day to confirm their stance. - Scotland Is Likely To Replace Bangladesh.pic.twitter.com/XyuGae4RNc — usman (@cricbyusman) January 21 2026 The report further stated that the Bangladesh Cricket Board have been given one more day that is till Thursday to decide whether they want to change their stance on playing in India. If Bangladesh continue to remain adamant on their decision not to play in India then they are set to be replaced by Scotland – the highest-ranked team which failed to qualify for the World Cup. Scotland had failed to qualify for the T20 World Cup 2026 – hosted by India and Sri Lanka – having finished behind Netherlands Italy and Jersey in the European qualifiers. Jay Shah leads ICC board meeting The ICC board meeting is being attended by the directors of all Full Member countries. Apart from the ICC chair Jay Shah the other participating in the meeting are BCB president Aminul Islam BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia Sri Lanka Cricket President Shammi Silva Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Mohsin Naqvi Cricket Australia chairman Mike Baird Zimbabwe Cricket president Tavenga Mukuhlani Cricket West Indies president Kishore Shallow Cricket Ireland chair Brian MacNeice Cricket New Zealand representative Roger Twose England Cricket Board chair Richard Thompson Cricket South Arica representative Mohammed Moosajee and Mirwais Ashraf from Cricket Afghanistan. Also attending the meeting are top brass of ICC management including Sanjog Gupta (CEO) ICC’s deputy chairman Imran Khawaja and Gaurav Saxena (General Manager Events) and two Associate Member directors Mubashshir Usmani and Mahinda Vallipuram. ICC’s anti-corruption head Andrew Ephgrave is also reportedly part of the meeting. Ephgrave was in Dhaka last week to have face-to-face meetings with BCB to assure them about the security concerns expressed by Bangladesh on travelling to India. BCB raised the demand for moving their T20 World Cup 2026 matches out of India after BCCI asked Shah Rukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders to release Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman. The left-arm pacer was bought by KKR for Rs 9.2 crore in the IPL 2026 mini auction but was released after instructions from the Indian cricket board.