Bangladeshi bowler Mustafizur Rahman was dropped by the Indian Premier League (IPL) team Kolkata Knight Riders at the request of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) following tensions between the two countries.
We use Google Cloud Translation Services. Google requires we provide the following disclaimer relating to use of this service:
This service may contain translations powered by Google. Google disclaims all warranties related to the translations, expressed or implied, including any warranties of accuracy, reliability, and any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and noninfringement.
Bangladesh said on Sunday that its team will not travel to India for next month's Twenty20 World Cup if the current situation persists. The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has requested that its matches be shifted elsewhere.
After tensions between the two countries escalated, the Indian Premier League (IPL) team Kolkata Knight Riders dropped Bangladeshi bowler Mustafizur Rahman at the request of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). After that, an emergency meeting of the BCB said that Bangladesh had formally requested the International Cricket Council (ICC) to shift the World Cup matches scheduled to be played in India.
The BCB said, “It is seen that the matches need to be shifted for the safety and security of the players, officials and other stakeholders. The team needs a suitable environment to participate.” Meanwhile, the interim government’s Youth and Sports Minister Asif Nazrul told the state-run news agency BSS, “We cannot tolerate any disrespect to Bangladeshi cricket and players under any circumstances. Now, the kind of treatment meted out to Das is unacceptable.”
He had ordered the BCB to request the Bangladesh matches to be shifted. He said, ‘Where any Bangladeshi player is removed from the team despite his contract, it is not safe for the entire Bangladeshi team to go there. That is why I have requested to move Bangladesh’s matches to Sri Lanka.’
The Twenty20 World Cup will start in India and Sri Lanka from February 7. All four matches of Bangladesh’s league stage will be played in India. Pakistan will play all its matches in Sri Lanka. This decision was taken as per the agreement between India and Pakistan to play multi-nation tournament matches on neutral ground. Relations between India and Bangladesh have been strained since the 2024 mass protests in Dhaka.
The then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina lost power due to the same mass protests and sought refuge in India. India, on the other hand, had recently protested against the injustice and atrocities being committed against minorities in Muslim-majority Bangladesh. Bangladesh's interim government chief and Nobel laureate Muhammad Younis also accused India of exaggerating the incident.
BCB president Emanul Islam Bulbul said that all possibilities are being discussed regarding the World Cup. He said, "The safety and dignity of Bangladeshi players is our first priority. Keeping this in mind, we have taken the right decision at the right time."
Kolkata had signed Mustafizur for more than a million dollars in the auction held last December. But BCCI secretary Devjit Saikia ordered Kolkata to release the 30-year-old Bangladeshi bowler from the contract between the two parties. The 2026 edition of the IPL will start on March 26. Nazrul said that he has also ordered Bangladeshi broadcasters to stop live broadcast of the IPL in Bangladesh. He added, "I have also ordered to stop the broadcast of IPL."
