The International Cricket Council (ICC) has provided fresh optimism to Bangladeshi journalists after perplexation and frustration regarding the media accreditation procedure to the ICC Men T20 world cup 2026, which will be in India and Sri Lanka. About 80-90 Bangladeshi journalists had already applied accreditation to cover the coveted international event after which some of the applications were reportedly denied causing anxiety among the media fraternity in the country.

The ICC sources state that the scenario has occurred because of the circumstances changed because of the decision of the Bangladesh cricket team to withdraw the tournament on grounds of security concerns in travelling to India. The ICC in turn has resolved to redesign the accreditation procedure to the Bangladeshi media staff including the recognition that the initial strategies require revision. The officials affirmed that they are updating the lists of accreditation to include the schedule and number of participating teams.

According to an ICC source, even in cases where a national team takes part in an ICC event, media accreditation requests have a limit. According to standard provisions, a country can only have a limited number of accredited journalists which is approximately 40 and the selections are determined by the recommendation of the respective home cricket board. Having almost twice that figure of applicants of the Bangladesh country, it was natural that not everyone would be accommodated.

Media committee chairman of Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) Amjad Hossain confirmed that the problem has been taken to the attention of ICC in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He added that the BCB has sought a proper clarification of the reason behind the rejection of applications and is still seeking a further clarification. Although emphasis is placed on the information being confidential, Hossain admitted that the ruling has raised eyebrows among those journalists who have been covering ICC proceedings on a regular basis.

This was disappointing as mentioned by a number of senior Bangladeshi journalists which had been denied their accreditation although they had previously covered several ICC world cups. A lot of them are waiting to get official advice given by the BCB before they can re-apply again as the ICC has stated that the journalists will need to re apply, and that the requests will be treated on a case-by-case basis.

Interestingly, the ICC itself in an evaluation performed allegedly had no direct security threat to the Bangladesh team in India. Nevertheless, the Bangladesh Board of Cricket opted not to send the team prompting the ICC to substitute Bangladesh with Scotland in the tournament which starts on February 7.