Indian MP Tharoor deplores ‘mindless politicising of sports’ in Mustafizur’s IPL snub
Indian politician and current Member of Parliament (MP) Shashi Tharoor called out the BCCI for 'deplorably' forcing Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman's removal from the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) squad for IPL 2026, doubling down on his belief that politics should not be dragged into sports.
In a tweet posted soon after Mustafizur was officially released by the KKR, Tharoor slammed this decision and questioned if it had been done if it had been a Bangladeshi player of a different religious identity.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. "Recalling my views on the subject, now that BCCI has deplorably pulled the plug on Mustafizur. And what if the Bangladeshi player in question had been Litton Das or Soumya Sarkar? Who are we punishing here: a nation, an individual, his religion? Where will this mindless politicising of sport lead us?" he wrote.
According to Indian reports, pressure had been mounting on KKR and its owner Shah Rukh Khan from ruling party BJP's politicians and religious leaders to release Mustafizur, who they had bought for a INR 9.20 crores in the IPL mini-auction.
On Friday, Tharoor had spoken on the matter to Indian news agency ANI and said unequivocally that cricket and politics should not mix. "Cricket should not be made to bear the burden for attacks on minorities in Bangladesh… we should try and insulate some areas from others," he said.
He also pointed out that Mustafizur, as a professional cricketer, is not responsible for any political or religious issues. "Mustafizur Rahman is a cricketer and has nothing to do with any of these things. He has not been personally accused of any hate speech or condoning or defending any attacks. Mixing these two things is simply not fair," Tharoor added.
"If we become a country that isolates all of our neighbours, and say nobody is playing with any of them, how does it do any good? ... It is purely a sporting decision, and we should not let politics come into this... We surround Bangladesh on three sides, we cannot isolate them, we have to play with them," he added.
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