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Jay Shah faces 'Cricket Hijack' allegations as political tensions rise among BCCI, BCB, PCB

Harsh Adwani

Ex BCB secretary slams Jay Shah [Source: @Mahimeena0666/x.com]Ex BCB secretary slams Jay Shah [Source: @Mahimeena0666/x.com]

The Mustafizur Rahaman row seems to be escalating every day. After the star pacer was ruled out of the IPL, the Bangladesh Cricket Board decided that they would not travel to India for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2026, citing security concerns.

Now, the former BCB secretary, Syed Ashraful Haque, has launched an attack on cricket administration in Asia, particularly targeting Jay Shah.

He claimed that the cricket ecosystem has been hijacked, and the Mustafizur row would have never happened during Jagmohan Dalmia, IS Bindra, Madhavrao Scindia, NKP Salve or even Mr N Srinivasan’s reign.  According to him, the former cricketers would have understood the implications of this on a player, unlike Jay Shah, who has never played competitive cricket.

“The whole cricket ecosystem in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan — everywhere — has been hijacked by politicians. Just think about it. Would this ever have happened if people like Mr Jagmohan Dalmia, Mr IS Bindra, Mr Madhavrao Scindia, Mr NKP Salve or even Mr N Srinivasan were in charge? This would never have happened because they were mature people. They understood the game, and they understood the implications,” Haque told the Times of India.

Ex-BCB secretary believes skipping the T20 World Cup should not be an option

Haque also criticised the decisions made by Bangladesh not to travel to India for the T20 World Cup. He believes this was a rash decision because skipping an event like the World Cup should not be the case.

“Now it has been hijacked completely. You have people who have never held a bat. In your case, you have Jay Shah, who has never even held a cricket bat in a competitive match. Our sports adviser gives a statement that Bangladesh should not go to India. Think about it. This is a World Cup event. This is not the IPL. IPL is a domestic tournament. This is an international World Cup event. You cannot come out with rash statements like this,” he added.

Haque thinks BCCI’s decision is politically motivated

He added that BCCI might not have had any issues if it were players like Liton Das or Soumya Sarkar. Adding that the decision had political motives to it and that they were playing on people’s religious sentiments.

“Instead of Mustafizur, had it been Litton Das or Soumya Sarkar, would they have done the same thing? They wouldn’t. It is all cheap religious sentiment that politicians are playing. It’s what happens when immature politicians take over. You have elections in West Bengal and Assam, so you play this political card to get votes. And you put an international event of World Cup stature into difficulty,” said Haque.

The World Cup is scheduled to begin on the 7th of February, and as per the original schedule, Bangladesh is set to play four matches, three in Kolkata and one in Mumbai. As for now, the ICC has not provided any update on BCB’s plea, and there is no confirmation whether their matches will be shifted from India to Sri Lanka.