The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is in a mess. Not only are they locked in a high-stakes diplomatic standoff with the ICC over the 2026 T20 World Cup in India, but they are also paralysed by an unprecedented players’ protest demanding the total ouster of a top board official.
As a result of that protest, BCB’s premier T20 competition, the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), was put on hold for a day on January 15 (Thursday) as players decided not to compete until and unless their demands were met.
Why are cricketers protesting in Bangladesh?
One of BCB’s directors and head of finances, Nazmul Islam, during an interaction with the media, had said that whether the Bangladesh cricket team participated in the T20 World Cup 2026 in India or not made no difference.
“Have we won a single global trophy till now? Then we could’ve said every time you have failed to perform, whatever we have spent on you, now we will take it back. Return it to us,” Islam had said when asked about his Facebook comments on former Bangladesh cricketer Tamim Iqbal.
Before this byte of his to the media, Nazmul, in a post on his Facebook account, wrote, “This time, the people of Bangladesh witnessed, with their own eyes, the emergence of yet another proven Indian agent.”
His comments were directed at Tamim after the latter had asked BCB to tread cautiously and not jump the gun on participation in the T20 World Cup 2026.
This entire episode was taken by former and current players to be condescending towards the abilities of the national team, and as a result, the players demanded Nazmul’s removal.
Since that did not happen immediately, all the players in the country, led by the president of the Cricketers Welfare Association of Bangladesh (CWAB), Mohammad Mithun, announced a protest.
As a result, the BPL and the Dhaka Cricket League came to a halt on January 15 (Thursday).
When will BPL and DCL resume?
The BPL and other cricket activities in the country can resume as soon as Nazmul apologises, said Mithun.
“Since Director M Nazmul Islam has publicly spoken insulting words about the cricketers, we hope that he will publicly apologise. We have informed the BCB that we are ready to return to the game from Friday if he publicly apologises and the process for his directorship is ongoing,” Mithun was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.
However, Aminul Islam, the president of the BCB, who removed Nazmul from the position of finance head of the board, clearly communicated to the players that his colleague, still holding the position of director in the board, would not give a public apology. This is where the impasse has been created.
Although the BCB, as per ESPNCricinfo, has rescheduled the cancelled matches of Thursday, it will be interesting to see if they do take place or not.
What about Bangladesh’s participation in the T20 World Cup?
Mustafizur Rahman, the only Bangladeshi cricketer bought in the IPL 2026 auction, was released by the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) after the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) asked them to do so.
That led to people protesting in Bangladesh, demanding that the national team not travel to India for the T20 World Cup 2026. In the hope of utilising the protests for political mileage in the country where elections are due early February, Nazmul made crass comments on the national team and a former cricketer, Tamim.
The BCB sits at a crossroads, and it has had a request from ICC to reconsider its decision not to play in India. It will either have to send the team to India or forfeit the points from those games.