Bangladesh star removed from IPL on Indian cricket board ‘advice’

NEW DELHI (AFP): Bangladesh fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman was Saturday released by Indian Premier League team Kolkata Knight Riders after the cricket board “advised” it to do so, following tensions between the neighbouring nations.

Mustafizur, who has played in the IPL for other teams in previous editions, was snapped up at auction in December by Kolkata for more than $1 million.

Devajit Saikia, secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), said that “considering recent developments” Kolkata were “advised to release” the 30-year-old.

Kolkata, majority-owned by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, subsequently said that his “release has been carried out following due process and consultations”.

“BCCI will allow Kolkata Knight Riders a replacement player in line with IPL replacement regulations,” the team said in a statement on X.

The 19th edition of the IPL begins on March 26.

Saikia did not publicly give further reasons for the directive, but the presence of the Bangladesh international provoked criticism by some right-wing Hindu groups after the death of a Hindu man in Bangladesh in December.

India’s foreign ministry last month condemned what it called “unremitting hostility against minorities” in Muslim-majority Bangladesh.

Bangladesh’s interim leader, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, has accused India of exaggerating the scale of the violence.