The Bangladesh-India Rift Has Spread to the Cricket Pitch
Mustafizur’s removal from the IPL is a yorker to Bangladesh-India relations and regional stability. So much for cricket diplomacy.
By Misbahul Haque
January 06, 2026
Bangladesh bowler Mustafizur Rahman was released by his franchise, the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), on January 3, following
instructions from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the regulator of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
In response, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) announced that the
Bangladesh team will not travel to India to participate in the T20 World Cup, which is only a month away. It wrote to the International Cricket Council (ICC), seeking
a shift of Bangladesh’s T20 World Cup matches from India to another country.
The escalation came against the backdrop of already strained relations between Dhaka and New Delhi. Ties deteriorated sharply after former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted from power through a mass uprising on August 5, 2024. There is a popular belief in Bangladesh that without unwavering support from India, Hasina could not have continued her rule for over 15 years, including three highly controversial parliamentary elections. India’s sheltering of the deposed prime minister, along with
tens of thousands of Awami League leaders and activists who fled across the border, has reinforced the perception of New Delhi’s interference in Bangladesh’s politics.
India, for its part, has repeatedly
expressed concerns about violence against Hindus in Bangladesh and has urged Dhaka to bring the perpetrators to justice. Bangladesh has consistently pushed back, claiming the incidents to be either isolated or politically motivated rather than communal. In an unprecedented move, Bangladesh recently
expressed its own concerns about violence against minority groups in India.
In this charged atmosphere, Mustafizur’s removal from the IPL has poured fuel on the fire of anti-India sentiment in Bangladesh. While commenting on the decision, Indian
MP Shashi Tharoor has asked the most pertinent question: “Who are we punishing here: a nation, an individual, his religion? Where will this mindless politicizing of sport lead us?”
Bangladesh and India share more than 4,000 kilometers of border, which is the fifth longest international border in the world. A sustained hostility along this border will carry serious security, economic, and humanitarian risks for both countries. Therefore, neither country can afford a breakdown in relations in the long run.
The two neighboring nations enjoyed the most stable and prosperous phase of their bilateral relationship during Hasina’s tenure. Prime Minister Narendra Modi described this period as
a “Sonali Adhyay” (golden era) in Bangladesh-India relations, while External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar repeatedly referred to Bangladesh as
a strong pillar of India’s “Neighborhood First” policy. Bilateral cooperation peaked during the time, with India extending Lines of Credit (LoC) worth
$7.862 billion and Bangladesh providing
transit routes to India’s land-locked Northeast and addressing its security concerns.
Alongside this cooperation, Bangladesh and India met often on the cricket field. Close finishes, controversial umpiring calls, and high-stake games gave the cricket rivalry real emotional weight for both sets of fans. At times, these on-field disputes spilled onto social media, where fans increasingly argued in political and religious undertones. The situation worsened when a religious angle was added to cricket celebrations.
Video clips of cricket fans in Dhaka cheering the win of Australia against India in the 2023 ODI World Cup final went viral on social media platforms. This celebration hurt the Indian cricket fans. Some social media influencers and media outlets
framed the celebration as proof of Bangladeshi Muslims’ hostility to Hindu-majority India, instead of an ordinary sporting schadenfreude.
This narrative completely overlooked the ground scenario. There is a perception among the Bangladeshi cricket fans that
umpires often give decisions in favor of the Indian team, only because of their influence over the game. That belief prompted them to celebrate India’s defeat.
Beyond cricket, the majority of Bangladeshi youths were already angry with India as they believed New Delhi helped Hasina stay in power despite flawed elections and growing repression. Most young citizens who became eligible to vote after 2009 could not cast their votes in any competitive national election. They saw Hasina securing victory after victory through engineered elections and
Modi among the earliest world leaders to congratulate her. For them, resentment against India was fundamentally political. Yet much of the Indian commentary overlooked these underlying issues and highlighted the Hindu-Muslim divide.
Since August 2024, these tensions have spilled out into the open. Many Bangladeshis still blame India for patronizing the Awami League as it hosts Hasina – who has since received a death sentence in Bangladesh –
along with around 100,000 fleeing leaders and activists of her party. Meanwhile, India has continuously called out violence against Hindu community members in Bangladesh. Amid the tensions, sharp exchanges between officials of both countries have become frequent.
In theory, sports could have served as a neutral space to ease tensions and preserve people-to-people goodwill. Unfortunately, cricket has now been drawn into the wider political struggle, under the influence of rising far right politics on both sides of the border. When the KKR bought the rights to Mustafizur Rahman, some
Hindu leaders and groups protested against his inclusion, referring to reported violence against Hindus in Bangladesh. Eventually, he was dropped from the team under pressure from the BCCI.
In the coming days, this incident may serve as a significant step towards a more divided and unstable region. Many hoped for stable relations between the two South Asian neighbors following Jaishankar’s recent visit to Bangladesh. But Mustafizur’s removal has reinforced the anti-India sentiment and deepened mistrust in Bangladesh.
It is crystal clear that Mustafizur has been dropped from the KKR due to his religious affiliation. Shashi Tharoor asked rightly whether the situation would have been the same if a non-Muslim Bangladeshi cricketer had been picked by an IPL team.
Cricket, at its best, has the potential to bring people together. Turning it into a weapon of division and punishment will only deepen mistrust and complicate the process of reconciliation. For Bangladesh and India, the challenge is to step back from this path and prioritize a future built on mutual dignity and peaceful coexistence.
Mustafizur’s removal from the IPL is a yorker to Bangladesh-India relations and regional stability. So much for cricket diplomacy.
thediplomat.com