Bangladesh Players React To Government's T20 World Cup U-Turn: "Funny"

Asif Nazrul, sports advisor to the Bangladesh government, made a stunning U-turn as he claimed that the decision to pull out of the T20 World Cup 2026 was taken by the players and Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB). Despite his previous comments making it clear that the Bangladesh government decided to not send the national team to India for the competition, Nazrul completely changed his tune in a recent interview and put the blame on the Bangladesh players. The BCB requested the International Cricket Council (ICC) to shift their games from India citing 'security concerns' but no changes were made to the tournament schedule.

Following a meeting between Nazrul, the players and the BCB officials, the decision was taken to stick to their stance - something that led to their removal from the World Cup.

The recent comments left Bangladesh cricketers upset as media reports previously claimed that they were in favour of playing the World Cup. They expressed their disappointment at the comments and one player even said that they feel 'helpless' when it comes to the recent development.

“That was funny,” a player told The Daily Star.

Another player said, “You heard what he said. What can we say? We have no one. We are helpless. We don't know what to say since we had no hand in this [World Cup exclusion]. Many things don't need to be verbalised to be understood. We didn't get any help from any side.”

Later, he changed his statement once again as he issued a clarification, admitting he failed to explain the matter clearly and made it clear that the decision was taken by the government. "Once again, I firmly state that the decision not to play in the World Cup was made by the government," he said.

Nazrul explained that his earlier comments were misunderstood during an "unprepared conversation" with journalists following a BCB event. He claimed the question asked was about whether he felt regret over not playing, not about who made the decision.

Topics mentioned in this article

India Cricket Team Pakistan Cricket Team Bangladesh Cricket Team Bangladesh Cricket Board Pakistan Cricket Board BCCI International Cricket Council T20 World Cup 2026 Cricket