Bangladeshi sports journalists denied accreditation for T20 World Cup

The International Cricket Council, ICC, has rejected the accreditation applications of Bangladeshi sports journalists seeking to cover the 2026 T20 World Cup to be held in India and Sri Lanka.

The decision was communicated to the journalists via email on Monday evening.

Nearly 100 Bangladeshi sports journalists had applied for accreditation to cover the tournament. However, after Bangladesh decided not to play matches in India due to security concerns and was subsequently excluded from the tournament, the ICC cancelled all journalist applications collectively.

Earlier, following the exclusion of Mustafizur Rahman from the IPL, the BCB president and sports adviser had repeatedly raised concerns regarding the safety of Bangladeshi journalists travelling to India for professional duties.

The mass rejection has left the Bangladeshi sports journalism community surprised and disappointed. Attempts to contact the ICC media department for clarification have not yielded any official response.

Bangladeshi journalists have long travelled extensively to cover bilateral series abroad, often crossing great distances. Many now view the decision to completely exclude Bangladeshi media from covering a global T20 World Cup in a neighbouring country as unusual and discriminatory.