Bangladesh finds Asif Nazrul solely responsible for T20 World Cup pullout

An investigation by the Bangladesh government has found Asif Nazrul as the sole person responsible for pulling out of the ICC men’s T20 World Cup 2026 in India earlier this year. Bangladesh pulled out of the tournament after Mustafizur Rahim was released from the Kolkata Knight Riders’ squad after being sold at the IPL 2026 auction.

The three-member investigation committee found that the BCB lacked “independent strategic leadership, crisis diplomacy capability and long-term planning” while handling the issue.

After several attempts at mediation between the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), Bangladesh were replaced by Scotland for the tournament.

The ICC came to the decision after the majority of the board members voted against Bangladesh’s participation, as the BCB refused to play their matches in India, following Mustafizur’s removal from the IPL.

In the aftermath of the decision taken by the BCCI, Asif Nazrul, who was the country’s sports minister at the time, announced in a Facebook post that Bangladesh would not participate in the T20 World Cup matches in India. The BCB even requested the ICC to shift their matches to co-host Sri Lanka, which was denied.

After Bangladesh’s new sports minister Aminul Haque took over in May, he set up a three-member committee to investigate the T20 World Cup fiasco. Dr AKM Oli Ullah, additional secretary of the administration sub-division at the Ministry of Youth and Sports, headed the committee, which also included former Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar and Barrister Faisal Dastagir.

Subsequently, Bangladesh T20I captain Litton Das, Test captain Najmul Hossain Shanto and assistant coach Mohammad Salahuddin were interviewed by the committee, apart from BCB president Tamim Iqbal, chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury and former general secretary Syed Ashraful Huq.

Asif Nazrul comments on investigation

Everyone cited Nazrul as the sole decision-maker when it came to Bangladesh’s participation in the tournament. Shanto and Litton were in the meeting with Nazrul, along with the then BCB president Aminul Islam, after the ICC board warned Bangladesh of being replaced in the tournament if they didn’t change their stance.

Both Shanto and Litton stated that Nazrul took the decision despite the players‘ positivity towards participating in the World Cup matches held in India.

Ahead of Bangladesh’s elections, Nazrul had said that it was the BCB and the Bangladesh players who decided not to play in India, and not the government. However, on Tuesday, he admitted that he took the decision himself.

“As the then Sports Minister, the decision not to travel to India for the T20 World Cup was primarily mine. I have stated this publicly on multiple occasions. Therefore, I fail to understand what prompted the Ministry of Sports to conduct a high-profile investigation into the matter and release the findings after all this time,” he wrote in a Facebook post after the government’s investigation report was published.

This article first appeared on Mr Cricket UAE and was syndicated with permission.

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