Mustafizur Rahman row: ‘Bangladesh is not Pakistan; they don’t dispatch terrorists’ – Shashi Tharoor blasts BCCI | Cricket News
NEW DELHI: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Sunday strongly criticised the BCCI’s decision to ask Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to release Bangladesh fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman, insisting that sport should remain separate from politics.Speaking to The Indian Express, Tharoor said the move amounted to an unnecessary politicisation of cricket. His comments came after the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) decided against sending its national team to India for the T20 World Cup next month, citing security concerns and government advice. The decision followed KKR’s release of Mustafizur on the BCCI’s instruction.
On Sunday, Bangladesh named their squad for the T20 World Cup beginning in February, leaving out middle-order batters Jaker Ali Anik and Mahidul Islam while selecting five fast bowlers. Wicketkeeper-batter Litton Das was named captain for the tournament to be held in India and Sri Lanka, the BCB said.However, the squad announcement also coincided with Dhaka requesting that its four group matches scheduled in India be shifted to Sri Lanka, amid anger over India forcing a Bangladeshi player to quit the Indian Premier League.“I think it’s an absolutely appalling decision by the BCCI. It is an unnecessary politicisation of a sporting decision. And there are various aspects I object to. One is the fact that purely as a cricketing decision, it makes no sense because teams were invited to choose from a registered pool of players selected by the BCCI. So if a fellow was in the pool, why is KKR to blame for selecting somebody from that pool? So, the first question is that it makes no sense to object to the selection of somebody whom the BCCI has submitted to all the teams as an eligible player,” Tharoor told The Indian Express.“Bangladesh is not Pakistan. Bangladesh has not been dispatching terrorists across the border. It’s not a comparable situation at all. And besides, our relationship with the two countries is also different. And the stage of our negotiations or our diplomacy with Bangladesh is different from our relationship with Pakistan. You cannot make a simple equation between the two.“There is also a moral objection I have, which is why is it that sports and cricket alone have to bear the burden of social media outrage? There are so many other ways in which we are interacting with Bangladesh at various levels. But somehow, cricket has to bear this. And one particular player, that player has never condoned hate speech, he has never said anything against India or against the Hindu minority in Bangladesh, he is just a sportsman. Who are we victimising here?“And if we have decided now that the social media outrage will mean that every Bangladeshi cricketer is ineligible to play in India, then what happens if a Bangladeshi Hindu cricketer like Litton Das or Soumya Sarkar — who are good players in Bangladesh and have played in the IPL in the past — if they had been picked this year, would they also have been kicked out? And if not, then what are we signaling? Are we such an intolerant country that we’re against Muslim Bangladeshis and not against Hindu Bangladeshis?“This entire thing has not been thought through at all by anybody who took this reflexive decision, presumably in response to social media outrage. And I find this absolutely preposterous. To my mind, it demeans us as a nation. It demeans our diplomacy. It demeans our bilateral relationship. It demeans our culture as a nation with a broad enough mind and a big enough heart to be able to look at these things in a broader spirit,” he said.Bangladesh World Cup T20 squad:Litton Das (captain), Mohammad Saif Hasan, Tanzid Hasan Tamim, Parvez Hossain Emon, Towhid Hridoy, Shamim Hossain, Nurul Hasan Sohan, Mahedi Hasan, Rishad Hossain, Nasum Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Tanzim Hasan Sakib, Taskin Ahmed, Mohammad Shaifuddin, Shoriful Islam.
