Bangladesh Sports Advisor Applauds Pakistan PM Sharif Over T20 World Cup Support

Bangladesh sports advisor Asif Nazrul on Thursday extended his gratitude to Pakistan Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif for his country’s support over the T20 World Cup issue, from which Bangladesh pulled out citing security concerns over playing in India and Pakistan supported their stance.

Pakistan, who were supposed to play arch-rivals India on Sunday, February 15, boycotted the game saying that politics should be kept away from sports and hence, they would stand by Bangladesh.

Bangladesh’s concerns arose after Mustafizur Rahman was snubbed from IPL 2026 over Hindu killings in the neighbouring nation.

“Thank you, Pakistan. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said that his country has decided to boycott the match against India in protest

against Bangladesh being excluded from the T20 World Cup,” Nazrul posted on his Facebook page on Thursday morning.

Nazrul serves as the Sports Advisor in the unelected interim administration headed by Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh, a role that carries ministerial authority. In essence, Nazrul is the sports minister of the interim regime that was put in place after Sheikh Hasina’s government was ousted during the July-August 2024 agitation.

Pakistan on Sunday, February 1, announced a boycott of its high-profile men’s T20 World Cup group league game against arch-rivals India on February 15 in Colombo. However, the Pakistani government cleared the national team’s participation in the rest of the global event beginning Saturday, February 7.

Pakistan’s decision, which was conveyed through an official government statement, is a political protest against Bangladesh’s removal from the tournament. The ICC declined Bangladesh’s request to shift games from India to Sri Lanka on security grounds.

Earlier, the Bangladesh Cricket Board’s claim that India was unsafe for its cricketers fell apart because of its own contradictions. Just days after the board refused to send the national team to India for the T20 World Cup, citing security concerns, Dhaka cleared a Bangladeshi shooter to travel to New Delhi to compete in the Asian Shooting Championships.