Bangladesh makes IPL U-turn: Government lifts ban on tournament screening, confirms minister
Bangladesh makes IPL U-turn: Months after imposing a ban on the broadcast on the Indian Premiere League earlier this year, Bangladesh government have removed the blanket ban on league this season. The development was confirmed by the country’s newly appointed Information and Broadcasting Minister Zahir Uddin Swapan during a media interaction on Saturday, March 28.
Earlier this year, Bangladesh had banned screening of the IPL in the aftermath of pacer Mustafizur Rahman being relieved from the league.
“No one applied to us to telecast the IPL. We don’t want to mix politics with sport. We will look at it from a commercial perspective, and if any channel applies to telecast the IPL, we will consider it positively,” Zahir Uddin Swapan said on Saturday.
“We will not bar anyone from telecasting it. If Star Sports wants to telecast it, they can. If any of our channels want to telecast it, we will take it positively, but we will not force anything,” he added.
The board had informally instructed the franchise to part ways with the left-arm pacer while reacting to incidents involving the killing of Hindu minorities in Bangladesh.
Relations between the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the Bangladesh Cricket Board reached a historic low after the incident, leading to Bangladesh withdrawing from the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026.
However, in the past few days, ties have started to improve, with leaders from both countries exchanging friendly gestures and signals of goodwill.
- With inputs from agencies
