With just around ten days to go for the 2026 men’s T20 World Cup, there’s more confusion than excitement in the air. The International Cricket Council (ICC) has ejected Bangladesh from the tournament and last-minute replacement Scotland are scrambling to get visas for their players.
Meanwhile, Pakistan and its controversial politician-cum-board chairman, Mohsin Naqvi, have thrown a big spanner in the works by announcing that it’s not confirmed whether his team will play the tournament. They have announced their squad, but are keeping ‘all their options open’.
Bangladesh wanted its games to be moved out of India due to security concerns, and had the support of Pakistan. However, the ICC presented it as a security report which said there was no credible threat and rejected the idea, also citing the logistical concerns — Pakistan is now calling it an ‘injustice’.
These supposed ‘options’ are, if the Pakistan media is to be believed, aimed at a ‘protest’ against the ICC. Below, we analyse what the PCB can do and how ICC might react to it.
The biggest development to come out of Pakistan is that the PCB is seriously considering boycotting the entire tournament. Naqvi said that their final decision will be made in consultation with the Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif by next Monday (February 2), only a few hours before the opener.
At the moment, this move seems difficult, and there are many reasons for that. First, every country signs a Tournament Participation Agreement (TPA) and thus is legally bound to participate. Although the terms of this agreement haven’t been made public, there’s a high chance the ICC will have a clause to protect itself from teams pulling out of the tournaments at the last minute.
In fact, when there were reports that Pakistan might refuse to travel to India for the 2023 World Cup, the ICC had made a statement reminding them of the agreement.
