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Geopolitical disturbance en route to turn India-Bangladesh cricket ties into 'India-Pakistan 2.0'

Umesh Sharma

Chaos in Bangladesh (L), Rohit Sharma (R), and Najmul Hossain Shanto (C) (Source: AFP/BCB)Chaos in Bangladesh (L), Rohit Sharma (R), and Najmul Hossain Shanto (C) (Source: AFP/BCB)

Since the ouster of the former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the fall of her 15-year-long regime in the country, the relations between Bangladesh and India have worsened with every passing day. It has seriously impacted the friendly ties that used to be there between New Delhi and Dhaka. 

After the August 2024 fiasco for the Hasina-led government, anti-India sentiments have been seen rising gradually across different parts of Bangladesh. The radical groups with anti-India stance have grown in the power centres of Bangladesh. Meanwhile, New Delhi has also raised its concerns and raised a concern on the friendly relations with Dhaka since 1971. 

Meanwhile, this massive geopolitical turmoil has also put the India-Bangladesh cricketing ties in jeopardy as the momentum seems to be shifted in the same chaotic dynamics New Delhi shares with Islamabad. 

Hence, here’s a thorough analysis of the geopolitical tensions between India and Bangladesh, leading to drive India-Bangladesh cricket ties to the same fate as India-Pakistan cricketing relations. 

The rise of anti-India narrative in Bangladesh

Bangladesh would’ve been still struggling with an existential crisis as East Pakistan if there was no ‘liberation war in 1971’. There would’ve been the tortures and torments under West Pakistan’s (present day’s Pakistan) influence if there was no intervention. 

Just three days back, December 16 marked the 54th anniversary of the formation of Bangladesh and Indian establishment’s win over Pakistan-driven forces to make a new country happen in the region within 24 years of independence from British colonialism. 

But this anniversary and last year’s anniversary since August 2024 political coup, witnessed more of anti-India instead of remembering India’s efforts to take Bangladesh people out of torture and atrocities.

A fresh ignition sparked between Dhaka and New Delhi

In the recent line of developments, the death of an anti-India youth leader Sharif Osman Hadi in Dhaka on Thursday, December 18 also triggered a fresh row of voices against New Delhi throughout the political corridors of the country. Hadi was shot by two assailants on December 12 in Central Dhaka.

Apart from this, there are major anti-India forces in Bangladesh taking over the country's political ecosystem. It includes the political organisations like Jamaat-e-Islami, alongside their paramilitary militias like Al-Badr and Al-Shams. 

These are the same forces that have a pro-Pakistan stance. They also aligned with the Western Pakistan in torturing the people who were fighting in the ‘liberation war’ for Bangladesh’. 

Having such disturbed dynamics at geopolitical turf is gradually moving in the direction of deteriorating and impacting bilateral cricket relations between the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB). 

India-Bangladesh cricket ties or ‘India-Pakistan relations 2.0’

The rise and alignment of pro-Pakistan powers, alongside anti-India sentiments increasing rapidly in the political ecosystem of Bangladesh seem to turn the India-Bangladesh cricket relations into the extended version of the chaotic and disturbed cricketing ties between India and Pakistan. 

Notably, a white-ball assignment of India’s men’s cricket team in Bangladesh was scheduled earlier this year in August, which was put on hold due to the rising New Delhi-Dhaka tensions. 

Subsequently, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) also decided to put India Women’s assignment against Bangladesh Women on hold, which would have been played this month. All these decisions have been taken by the Indian cricket board owing to the geopolitical and international relation-chaos with Bangladesh. 

“We will try to arrange an alternate series in December but details are still being worked out. As far as the series against Bangladesh is concerned, we didn’t get a go ahead for it,” a BCCI source told PTI last month.  

Given the stance of the Indian cricket administration, it will not be an overstatement to say that ‘India’s cricketing relations with Bangladesh are going to be the deja-vu of what fans are witnessing in the cricketing ties between India and Pakistan’. 

It can also be backed with the recent rise of anti-India narrative in Bangladesh, which could compel to put the further bilateral assignments against Bangladesh on an uncertain hold.

Conclusion: Has Bangladesh cricket dug their own grave 

Bangladesh Cricket Board recently shared a condolence post for recently deceased anti-India youth leader Sharif Osman Hadi, which is never going to sit well with the cricketing authorities in India. 

With this act, the BCB seems to have dug the grave of Bangladesh cricket, which can be seen in the repercussions in the economical profits Bangladesh used to earn with the series against India. 

BCB, in an official financial statement for Fiscal Year 2022-23 revealed that they earned a total income of BDT 5,075 crores (which calculates to INR 384 crores), including their expenditure of BDT 3,558 crores (INR 270 crores). 

Most of these earnings for BCB came out of their bilateral cricket against India. These earnings of BCB are way less than BCCI’s revenue solely from the Indian Premier League (IPL). India’s IPL surplus was recorded INR 5,761 in 2024-25.  

So, it can be concluded that the Bangladesh Cricket Board has initiated its journey to a new downfall by worsening cricket relations with cricketing superpower like India.