Hours before the International Cricket Council’s meeting with Pakistan over the team’s boycott of their T20 World Cup match against India, Bangladesh Cricket Board President Aminul Islam Bulbul has landed in Lahore. Sources told India Today that Pakistan and Bangladesh’s hands are tied as the ICC tries to negotiate an amicable solution with Mohsin Naqvi’s PCB in a bid to convince Pakistan to lift its boycott of the ICC T20 World Cup’s most lucrative match.
The ICC meeting, which will be held on Zoom later in the evening, will be attended by ICC CEO Sanjog Gupta along with Naqvi and Bulbul as the sport’s governing body tries to manage the crisis that is now threatening the integrity of the tournament schedule.
India Today has learned that the PCB is trying to broker a deal in which Bangladesh is also part of the negotiating table despite not traveling to India for the 2026 T20 World Cup.
Earlier on February 2, with the World Cup less than a week away, Pakistan announced that it would not play India on February 15 in Colombo, escalating the controversy that began with Bangladesh’s refusal to travel to India for the tournament, citing security concerns.
Bangladesh, backed by its caretaker government, formally requested the ICC to move its matches to Sri Lanka, the co-hosts of the tournament. The ICC rejected the request and replaced Bangladesh with Scotland, setting off a chain reaction.
Bangladesh thanks Pakistan for World Cup stand
Bangladesh made it clear that they were aligned with Pakistan in their stance against India after Bangladesh Sports Advisor Asif Nazrul publicly thanked Islamabad for supporting Dhaka’s stance.
“Thank you Pakistan,” Nazrul wrote on Facebook. “Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said his country has decided to boycott the match against India to protest against Bangladesh’s exclusion from the T20 World Cup.”
Nazrul serves as a sports adviser in Bangladesh’s unelected interim government led by Muhammad Yunus, which was installed after Sheikh Hasina’s government was ousted during an agitation between July and August 2024. In effect, Nazrul functions as the country’s sports minister.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Cricket Board was instructed by the Sharif government to skip the match in India after Bangladesh were kicked out of the tournament for refusing to play on Indian soil.
“We have taken a very clear stand in the T20 World Cup that we will not play a match against India because there should be no politics on the sports field,” Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told a cabinet meeting in Islamabad.
With the ICC now forced to launch crisis talks involving all parties involved, Bulbul’s presence in Lahore underscores how deeply the issue has moved beyond cricket – and how difficult it may be for the world body to enforce consistency without inflaming an already volatile situation.
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Issued by:
Kingshuk Kusari
Published on:
February 8, 2026
