image source, BCB/Reuters
There has been a culture of mudslinging or trolling the other side on social media among cricket fans of Bangladesh and India for many years. But recently, after the exclusion of Mostafizur Rahman from the IPL team and Bangladesh’s refusal to play the World Cup in India in protest, the hostility between the two countries in cricket has taken a formal form.
In the last one and a half years, the diplomatic relations between the two countries have deteriorated considerably due to various issues like allegations of torture of minorities, security of the embassy.
During this period, the foreign ministries of the two countries have summoned the ambassadors of the other countries several times to condemn or protest about any ongoing issue. Many politicians of both countries have also made statements denigrating the other country to warm the field at different times.
The bitterness of the relationship has so far revolved around social media ‘tug of war’ or giving diplomatic statements, but this time the rivalry fell directly on cricket.
And Bangladesh is taking this round of disputes over cricket more seriously than any other time, it can be understood from the decision of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of Bangladesh. They have issued instructions on Monday banning the showing of IPL matches on Bangladeshi TV channels.
Cricket diplomacy and relations between India and Pakistan have been affected for a long time due to the bitterness of relations.
In the recent events surrounding Mostafizur Rahman, the cricketing relationship between India and Bangladesh has now reached such a level that there is no guarantee when it will be normal again.
image source, AFP via Getty Images
Criticism of the two countries on the decision of the cricket board
As much as many in India’s Hindutva political ideology were happy about Mostafizur Rahman being dropped from Kolkata Knight Riders, the anti-India sentiments in Bangladesh are surely relieved that Bangladesh has written to the ICC to move their World Cup match to India.
Asif Nazrul, sports adviser to the interim government of Bangladesh, wrote in a status from his verified Facebook page that ‘I have given instructions to request Bangladesh to hold the World Cup games in Sri Lanka.’
He wrote in the last line of the status, ‘Slavery days are over.’
But analysts say that the steps taken by the two countries on this issue have given priority to political considerations rather than cricketing diplomacy.
Mostafizur Rahman’s decision to drop from KKR has been criticized by many people related to cricket, including the Indian MP.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor severely criticized the exclusion of Mustafizur Rahman and commented on the decision as ‘irresponsible’ in an interview given to news agency ANI.
Mr. Tharoor
Former Cricket Board of India administrator and author Ramachandra Guha also wrote in a post on X that it was a ‘grossly ill-advised’ decision. He commented in the post that India should maintain good relations with Bangladesh for its national interest.
Similarly, many people involved in cricket think that Bangladesh’s decision not to play the World Cup in India is an ‘extra hard line approach’.
image source, Getty Images
Tahmid Amit, sports editor of private TV channel Jamuna Television, said that in protest against the decision to drop Mostafiz, cricket diplomacy in Bangladesh could have taken decisions such as stopping the IPL telecast, reprimanding the BCCI or filing a complaint with the ICC.
“They (BCB) could have asked the ICC to take certain measures for security, and then if they were not satisfied after verifying them, they could have decided not to go to the World Cup. They could not have taken such a drastic decision in the beginning,” he said.
He felt that ‘political considerations’ were given more importance than long-term cricketing interests behind the decision not to play in ICC events like the World Cup.
“The political context, the strict stance of the government forced the BCB to take this decision. To take a decision that many directors of BCB were not willing to take, because BCB knows how big the loss behind such a decision is.”
Apart from the money received from the ICC, a major part of BCB’s income comes from the broadcasting rights of bilateral series. In such a situation, Bangladesh’s series with India to be held in August this year may become uncertain and BCB may have to pay a huge fine for it.
However, Bangladeshi experts like Indian critics are in a fog as to why the BCCI took such a stubborn decision to keep Mostafizur Rahman in the IPL and later exclude him from the team.
image source, Getty Images
What happened around Mostafizur Rahman
For the 19th edition of the Indian Premier League, Kolkata Knight Riders took Bangladeshi pacer Mostafizur Rahman to the team for 9 crore two million rupees. The auction took place in Abu Dhabi on December 16.
Since that incident, several Hindutva organizations in India have started a campaign against Bolkata Knight Riders and part-owner Shahrukh Khan to protest Mustafiz’s inclusion in the team. Their point was that KKR went against the sentiments of the Indians and picked ‘Bangladeshi’ players.
Reasons for their complaints – Hindutva organizations in India have recently held several protest programs, including a march towards the Bangladesh High Commission in Delhi, against allegations of persecution of minorities in Bangladesh and the issue of minority security. That is why they termed taking Bangladeshi players as going against the sentiments of Indians.
Following this, on January 13, the Board of Control for Cricket in India, BCCI, announced that they had instructed Kolkata Knight Riders to drop Mostafizur Rahman from the team.
BCCI Secretary Devjit Saikia in his statement did not mention any specific reason but mentioned that BCCI took this decision ‘in view of recent events’. Kolkata Knight Riders also announced on the same day that Mustafiz had been dropped from the team.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board, BCB, held two board meetings over the issue in the next 24 hours.
BCB on Sunday issued a statement announcing their decision that the Bangladesh team will not send a team to India to play matches in the upcoming T20 World Cup. The statement said that the BCB has also made a formal request to the ICC to move Bangladesh’s match to another venue outside India.
The BCB statement cited concerns over the ‘security’ of the Bangladesh team as the reason, although it did not say whether Mustafizur Rahman had been instructed to drop him from the IPL squad on security grounds.
According to cricket website ESPNcricinfo, the BCB has written to the BCCI seeking an explanation as to why Mustafiz was released despite writing to the IPL auction.
However, Cricinfo says in their news, BCB did not mention the concern about the safety of the players in this letter.
image source, PROTHOM ALO
The pent-up animosity between the people of the two countries began to come to the fore from the 5th of August 2024.
Although the diplomatic relations between India and Bangladesh have deteriorated in the last one and a half years, it has not had a direct impact on the cricketing relations between the two countries.
However, since the India-Bangladesh match of the 2015 World Cup, the intensity of the off-field fight between the fans and supporters of the two countries has only increased day by day. The fight was not limited to trolls or memes on social media.
Many times the mainstream media has denigrated other country’s cricket team with offensive graphics like ‘Mowka Moka’ national TV ads or printed in newspapers with ‘Mustafiz Cutter’.
However, even though the criticism of other countries’ cricket has been pointedly criticized so far, after the decision of the two boards, maybe the fans will completely remove the cricketing considerations and give priority to the political context.
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