Amid rising political rigidity, a Bangladeshi official voices considerations over security of gamers in India through the upcoming event.
Bangladesh will request the Worldwide Cricket Council (ICC) to shift its staff’s T20 World Cup fixtures from India to Sri Lanka over considerations about its gamers’ security, following the elimination of a high Bangladeshi participant from the Indian Premier League (IPL), a authorities official has stated.
Amid rising political rigidity between the South Asian neighbours, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has been requested by its authorities to write down to the ICC, requesting a change of venue for its video games and in search of readability on quick bowler Mustafizur Rahman’s abrupt elimination from the IPL, youth and sports activities adviser Asif Nazrul stated in an announcement on Saturday.
“Because the adviser in control of the Sports activities Ministry, I’ve requested the BCB to clarify all the matter to ICC. The board ought to inform that the place a Bangladeshi cricketer can’t play in India regardless of being contracted, all the Bangladeshi cricket staff can’t really feel protected going to play within the World Cup,” Asif wrote in a social media publish.
“I’ve additionally instructed the board to request that Bangladesh’s World Cup matches needs to be held in Sri Lanka,” he added.
“We won’t settle for any insult to Bangladeshi cricket, cricketers and Bangladesh below any circumstances. The times of slavery are over.”
BCB President Aminul Islam Bulbul stated the board will maintain an emergency assembly in a while Sunday.
“The dignity and safety of our cricketers are our high priorities, and we are going to take a choice on the acceptable time, preserving these in thoughts,” he advised reporters late on Saturday.
Defending champions India and 2014 winners Sri Lanka will cohost the ICC Males’s T20 World Cup 2026 from February 7 to March 8.
Bangladesh are scheduled to play all their group-stage matches in India, with three fixtures allotted to Eden Gardens in Kolkata and one to the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
Ought to the ICC – headed by former BCCI chief Jay Shah – contemplate the BCB’s request, Bangladesh will change into the second nation to have its video games moved out of India.
Sri Lanka will host all of Pakistan’s matches because the 2009 champions won’t journey to India in an ICC-brokered settlement that permits the bitter rivals to keep away from travelling throughout their mutual border.
Earlier on Saturday, the staff Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) confirmed that Mustafizur had been launched from the franchise’s squad for IPL 2026 after the BCCI suggested it to take action, and the transfer was confirmed by the Indian cricket board’s secretary, Devajit Saikia.
“As a result of latest developments that are happening all throughout, BCCI has instructed the franchise KKR to launch one among their gamers, Mustafizur Rahman of Bangladesh, from their squad, and BCCI has additionally stated that in the event that they ask for any alternative, BCCI goes to permit that alternative,” Saikia advised Indian information company ANI.
Political rigidity spills over into sport
The continued tensions between India and Bangladesh have flared in latest weeks after a 25-year-old Hindu man was lynched and burned publicly in Bangladesh following allegations of blasphemy.
India’s Ministry of Exterior Affairs final month condemned what it referred to as “unremitting hostility in opposition to minorities”.
A couple of days later, Hindutva activists tried to storm the Bangladesh Excessive Fee in New Delhi as they rallied in opposition to the neighbouring nation for failing to guard its Hindu minorities.
Diplomatic relations between the once-close allies have been sharply examined since August final 12 months, when former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled to New Delhi from Dhaka after an rebellion in opposition to her rule.
Bangladesh blames India for a few of its troubles, together with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s help for Hasina when she was in energy.
Political tensions have spilled over into sport in latest months, with the Bangladeshi girls’s cricket staff’s latest tour of India postponed indefinitely, and the Indian males’s staff’s tour of Bangladesh assembly the identical destiny in August.
The BCCI’s transfer to have Mustafizur faraway from the IPL has met with backlash in Bangladesh, the place the favored franchise league could face a blackout.
Bangladeshi authorities official Nazrul stated he had requested the nationwide broadcasting physique to “cease broadcasting of IPL event in Bangladesh”.
