New Delhi: Scotland will replace Bangladesh in the upcoming men’s T20 World Cup, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced, saying the South Asian nation’s cricketing board failed to confirm its participation in India as per the tournament’s schedule that it had opposed on ‘security’ grounds.Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) officials did not confirm their team’s participation within the ICC’s 24-hour deadline communicated after an internal meeting on Wednesday, the apex governing body said on Saturday (January 24), following which it began its process to identify a replacement team.Reiterating its stance that independent security assessments had identified no threat to Bangladeshi players, officials or fans in India, the ICC said it found it was “not appropriate to amend the published event schedule”, per which Bangladesh would have played all its games in India and none in co-host Sri Lanka.The ICC, which again said it had communicated its findings with the BCB, stated that its decision was required in order to ‘safeguard the interests’ of participating players and teams as well as to prevent “precedents that could undermine the neutrality and fairness of ICC events”.There appeared to be no immediate response from the BCB or the interim government in Dhaka, which on Friday had repeated their refusal to play in India, saying they still hoped to play the tournament and would “keep fighting” despite the ICC’s refusal to grant their request to play in Sri Lanka.Cricket Scotland confirmed its participation in the T20 World Cup, with board CEO Trudy Lindblade saying they were “grateful to the ICC for extending this invite” and calling the opportunity “exciting”.“We also acknowledge this opportunity has arisen out of challenging and unique circumstances,” she said in a statement, noting that the Scotland squad was already training in preparation for upcoming tours and are “now preparing to arrive in India imminently to acclimatise to local conditions”.Pakistan, which according to ESPNcricinfo was the only ICC board member to have backed the BCB during the apex body’s meeting Wednesday, said Saturday that its stance on the matter would be in line with Islamabad’s orders.Saying that Bangladesh had been wronged and accusing the ICC of double standards, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman and federal home minister Mohsin Naqvi said the PCB’s stance would be whatever the Pakistani government orders it to do.“If the government of Pakistan says we should not play, let them [the ICC] bring in a 22nd team that agrees to come [to play the tournament]. But this is a decision the government of Pakistan must take,” he told reporters.Naqvi also said he had conveyed during the ICC’s board meeting that it cannot have “double standards”, allowing one country to have its way but making “totally opposite” decisions for others. “This is why we have taken the stance that Bangladesh has been wronged and must be allowed to play in one way or another. They are a big stakeholder and this injustice should not happen to them.”The World Cricketers’ Association that represents players through their domestic cricketing associations said in a statement that Bangladesh’s absence marked a “sad moment for our sport” as well as for Bangladeshi players and fans.“Rather than allowing division or exclusion to take hold, we call on the game’s leaders to work with all stakeholders … to unite the sport, not divide it,” said the Association, in which Bangladesh is represented but India is not. The ICC is chaired by Jay Shah, son of Indian Union home minister Amit Shah.The standoff between the BCB and the ICC was triggered by the former’s refusal to play in India on ‘security’ grounds earlier this month.That move was in turn prompted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s decision to have Bangladeshi bowler Mustafizur Rahman released from the Kolkata Knight Riders amid calls to do so from some Hindu right-wing groups in view of incidents of violence against Hindus in Bangladesh.The developments also take place amid tense Indo-Bangladeshi relations – which have been reflected on the streets in recent weeks – an aspect of which has been New Delhi’s repeated criticism of incidents of violence against minorities in Bangladesh, with Dhaka maintaining that “the intercommunal situation in Bangladesh is better than in many other parts in South Asia”.