Amid rising political rigidity, a Bangladeshi official voices issues over security of gamers in India throughout the upcoming event.
Bangladesh will request the Worldwide Cricket Council (ICC) to shift its group’s T20 World Cup fixtures from India to Sri Lanka over issues about its gamers’ security, following the removing of a prime Bangladeshi participant from the Indian Premier League (IPL), a authorities official has mentioned.
Amid rising political rigidity between the South Asian neighbours, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has been requested by its authorities to jot down to the ICC, requesting a change of venue for its video games and looking for readability on quick bowler Mustafizur Rahman’s abrupt removing from the IPL, youth and sports activities adviser Asif Nazrul mentioned in an announcement on Saturday.
“Because the adviser in control of the Sports activities Ministry, I’ve requested the BCB to elucidate the complete matter to ICC. The board ought to inform that the place a Bangladeshi cricketer can not play in India regardless of being contracted, the complete Bangladeshi cricket group can not really feel secure going to play within the World Cup,” Asif wrote in a social media submit.
“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 underneath any circumstances. The times of slavery are over.”
BCB President Aminul Islam Bulbul mentioned the board will maintain an emergency assembly in a while Sunday.
“The dignity and safety of our cricketers are our prime priorities, and we’ll take a call on the acceptable time, protecting these in thoughts,” he instructed 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 turn 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 group 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 current developments that are occurring all throughout, BCCI has instructed the franchise KKR to launch considered one of their gamers, Mustafizur Rahman of Bangladesh, from their squad, and BCCI has additionally mentioned that in the event that they ask for any alternative, BCCI goes to permit that alternative,” Saikia instructed Indian information company ANI.
Political rigidity spills over into sport
The continued tensions between India and Bangladesh have flared in current 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 known as “unremitting hostility towards minorities”.
A number of days later, Hindutva activists tried to storm the Bangladesh Excessive Fee in New Delhi as they rallied towards the neighbouring nation for failing to guard its Hindu minorities.
Diplomatic relations between the once-close allies have been sharply examined since August final yr, when former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled to New Delhi from Dhaka after an rebellion towards her rule.
Bangladesh blames India for a few of its troubles, together with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assist for Hasina when she was in energy.
Political tensions have spilled over into sport in current months, with the Bangladeshi girls’s cricket group’s current tour of India postponed indefinitely, and the Indian males’s group’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 might face a blackout.
Bangladeshi authorities official Nazrul mentioned he had requested the nationwide broadcasting physique to “cease broadcasting of IPL event in Bangladesh”.
