Bangladesh will not travel to India to play in next month’s T20 World Cup, its cricket board confirmed on Thursday, effectively ruling the country out of the tournament.
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“Our only demand is to play the World Cup but not in India,” Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Aminul Islam Bulbul told reporters.
The refusal came a day after cricket’s governing body rejected Bangladesh’s plea to play its matches in Sri Lanka instead.
“There is no scope for changing our decision,” said Asif Nazrul, an adviser on youth and sports issues in Bangladesh’s interim government.
The T20 World Cup begins on February 7, with Bangladesh scheduled to play their four group matches in the Indian cities of Kolkata and Mumbai.
The ICC said on Wednesday it had “engaged with the BCB in sustained and constructive dialogue” to ensure Bangladesh could participate, but added those efforts had been “rebuffed”.
It said “independent security assessments, comprehensive venue-level security plans and formal assurances from the host authorities” found there was “no credible or verifiable threat” to the safety of the Bangladesh team.
Nazrul rejected that assessment, saying Bangladesh’s concerns “did not arise from speculation or theoretical analysis”.
“They arose from a real incident, where one of our country’s top players was forced to bow to extremists, and the Indian cricket board asked him to leave India,” he said.
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The row erupted on January 3 when the Indian cricket board ordered IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders to release Bangladesh fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman after online outrage by right-wing Hindu groups in India.
Mustafizur, who was signed for more than AU$1.5 million at December’s IPL auction, was forced out amid claims of attacks on Hindu minorities in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, allegations Dhaka says were exaggerated by Indian media.
Bangladesh’s refusal has now placed the ICC under fire, with fans accusing the governing body of double standards particularly when compared with India’s refusal to travel to Pakistan for the 2025 Champions Trophy, a situation resolved through a hybrid hosting model.
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Political tensions have added fuel to the cricketing standoff. Relations between India and Bangladesh deteriorated after a mass uprising in Dhaka last year toppled former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, a close ally of New Delhi.
India has accused Bangladesh of failing to protect minorities, claims strongly denied by the country’s interim leader, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.
The crisis has also exposed deep fractures within Bangladesh cricket itself. BCB director M Nazmul Islam said players would not be compensated if they missed the World Cup, comments that sparked fury among the playing group.
“We are spending so much money on them,” Nazmul said. “What have we done at any level?”
Bangladesh’s players responded by threatening a boycott of all cricket, unless he resigns.
“The remark made by the BCB director has hurt the cricket fraternity greatly and it’s not acceptable,” Mohammad Mithun, the president of the Cricketers Welfare Association of Bangladesh, told reporters previously.
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Bangladesh, ranked ninth in T20s, has appeared in all nine editions of the tournament but has never reached a semi-final.
Bulbul warned the ICC the fallout would extend beyond this World Cup.
“Bangladesh is a cricket-loving nation of nearly 200 million people,” he said. “If we miss the World Cup, the ICC will lose a huge audience.”
– With AFP