BCCI's Decision "Demeans Us As A Nation": Shashi Tharoor On Mustafizur Rahman-IPL Row

Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman's release from the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 season has created a ripple effect in the cricketing world, with the International Cricket Council (ICC) now reportedly forced to redraw the T20 World Cup schedule. Mustafizur's release from the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) squad, on the instructions of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), has been termed “unnecessary politicisation” by Congress politician Shashi Tharoor. “I think it's an absolutely appalling decision by the BCCI. It is an unnecessary politicisation of a sporting matter. And there are various aspects I object to," he said.

"One is the fact that purely as a cricketing decision, it makes no sense because teams were invited to choose from a registered pool of players selected by the BCCI. So if a player was in the pool, why is KKR to blame for selecting somebody from that pool? The first question is: it makes no sense to object to the selection of someone whom the BCCI itself submitted to all the teams as an eligible player,” Tharoor told the Indian Express.

The BCCI is already at loggerheads with the Pakistan Cricket Board. Due to the nature of political relations between India and Pakistan, the cricket teams from the two countries do not engage in bilateral events. In fact, Pakistani cricketers are not allowed to participate in the IPL. Tharoor, however, expressed disappointment at seeing such a precedent being set for Bangladesh cricketers.

“Bangladesh is not Pakistan. Bangladesh has not been dispatching terrorists across the border. It's not a comparable situation at all. Besides, our relationship with the two countries is also different. The stage of our negotiations and diplomacy with Bangladesh is not the same as with Pakistan. You cannot make a simple equation between the two.”

Tharoor raised several objections to the BCCI's directive, including questions about whether Bangladesh's Hindu players like Litton Das and Soumya Sarkar would also have been released from the IPL had they been sold in the auction.

“There is also a moral objection I have: why is it that sports and cricket alone have to bear the burden of social media outrage? There are so many other ways in which we interact with Bangladesh at various levels. But somehow, cricket has to bear this. And one particular player—he has never condoned hate speech, he has never said anything against India or against the Hindu minority in Bangladesh—he is just a sportsman. Who are we victimising here?

"And if we have decided now that social media outrage will mean every Bangladeshi cricketer is ineligible to play in India, then what happens if a Bangladeshi Hindu cricketer like Litton Das or Soumya Sarkar—who are good players in Bangladesh and have played in the IPL in the past -- had been picked this year? Would they also have been kicked out? And if not, then what are we signalling? Are we such an intolerant country that we are against Muslim Bangladeshis but not against Hindu Bangladeshis?

"This entire matter has not been thought through at all by anybody who took this reflexive decision, presumably in response to social media outrage. I find this absolutely preposterous. To my mind, it demeans us as a nation. It demeans our diplomacy. It demeans our bilateral relationship. It demeans our culture as a nation with a broad enough mind and a big enough heart to look at these things in a broader spirit,” he said.

Topics mentioned in this article

Kolkata Knight Riders Bangladesh Cricket Team Mustafizur Rahman BCCI Bangladesh Cricket Board International Cricket Council Cricket