Bangladesh refuses to travel to India for the T20 World Cup after Mustafizur Rahman’s IPL exclusion, escalating a major cricket and diplomatic crisis, raising concerns over communal bias, broadcasting bans, and ICC intervention.
Bangladesh has officially decided not to travel to India for the upcoming T20 World Cup, escalating the sporting standoff between the two countries to an unprecedented level.
Youth and Sports Adviser Asif Nazrul disclosed the major development on Sunday, calling the move as a necessary response to what he termed the ‘radical communal policy’ of the Indian cricket authorities. The decision came as a dramatic shift from the Bangladesh Cricket Board’s (BCB) initial plan to merely request a venue change.
It signals a definitive boycott of matches on Indian soil following the controversial exclusion of pacer Mustafizur Rahman from the IPL. “Bangladesh will not go to India to play the World Cup. The Bangladesh Cricket Board took this decision today,” Asif Nazrul wrote on his social media.
“I welcome this decision adopted in the context of the Indian board’s radical communal policy,” he added. The crisis was triggered on Saturday when the BCCI instructed the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to release Mustafizur Rahman.
The move was celebrated by certain Indian political leaders as a “victory for Hindus,” a rhetoric that has drawn sharp condemnation from Dhaka. In parallel, the government is moving to sever cricketing ties on the broadcast front.
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Information and Broadcasting Adviser Syeda Rizwana Hasan earlier said the administration is actively reviewing legal frameworks to ban the telecast of the 2026 IPL within Bangladesh.
“There is no way to sit silent; a reaction must be shown,” Rizwana Hasan stated at the Secretariat, echoing Nazrul’s earlier sentiment that “the days of slavery are over.”
