Jay Shah and Rohit Sharma - (Source: X.com)
Bangladesh’s ouster from the T20 World Cup 2026 has raised several eyebrows. The internet and cricket fraternity are divided on this matter. A section has hailed ICC for not bowing to unreasonable demands, while the rest have questioned and accused Jay Shah of bias towards India.
The issue raised here is that when India had a problem traveling to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy 2025, the ICC agreed to a hybrid model, and the Men in Blue played the entire campaign in Dubai. Now, Bangladesh, which felt a security threat in India, have been kicked out because ICC’s independent security assessment team found no lapse in security.
Mohammad Yousaf joins the bandwagon to slam ICC
In the past couple of days, several individuals have slammed the ICC, and the latest to join the bandwagon is former Pakistan captain Mohammad Yousaf. The 51-year-old pointed out the impact on viewership and stated that Bangladesh alone generates more viewership than 10 lower-ranked teams, who will be part of the World Cup.
“The combined cricket viewership of New Zealand, Australia, Scotland, Nepal, Netherlands, Ireland, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan is broadly equivalent to the viewership Bangladesh generates on its own. 10 nations combined: 178 million Bangladesh alone: 176 million," Yousaf tweeted.
In a sport driven by global audiences, sidelining Bangladesh’s legitimate security concerns raises serious questions about consistency and governance. When accommodation becomes selective, fairness disappears. Cricket cannot be administered by influence — only by principle,” he added.
Mohammad Yousaf corrected by fans over false data
As soon as Yousuf made the tweet, the Twitter readers' community quickly flagged the false data, and stated that the numbers were for population, and not viewership.
“The figures cited (178 million combined, 176 million for Bangladesh) match the populations of those countries, not cricket viewership. worldometers.info/world-populati… Global viewership shares place Bangladesh at 4-5%, with Australia having high household penetration,“ read the flagged statement.
Yousaf accuses ICC of just favouring BCCI
Right after Bangladesh were thrown out of T20 World Cup 2026, Yousaf quickly took to Twitter and slammed ICC for just favouring India.
“Very sad to see a cricket-loving nation like Bangladesh being deprived of cricket due to security concerns not being addressed. When similar concerns were raised earlier, a neutral venue was approved. Standards cannot change from country to country. ICC must act as the International Cricket Council, not appear to serve the interests of any single board. Fairness and consistency are the foundation of global cricket,” tweeted Yousaf.
At present, the ball is in Pakistan's court whether they want to play T20 World Cup 2026 or not. On Monday, January 26, PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi held a meeting with Pakistan PM Shehbaz Shariff and the former confirmed that a decision will be taken on February 1 regarding the participation.
In case Pakistan boycotts, there is still a way for Bangladesh to return and then they will be placed in the same group as India, replacing Pakistan.
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