Feb 19, 2026, 06:40 AMOpen Extended Reactions
Aminul Haque, Bangladesh's new sports minister, is keen on mending fences with the BCCI and India, saying he wants to "resolve this issue quickly", referring to Bangladesh's non-participation at the ongoing men's T20 World Cup.
"After taking the oath today, I met with the deputy high commissioner of India at the Parliament building. I discussed the T20 World Cup with him," Aminul said on Tuesday after Bangladesh's new cabinet was sworn in following the general elections. "It was a cordial conversation. I told him that we want to resolve this issue quickly through discussions because we want to maintain friendly relations with all our neighbouring countries."
Bangladesh were replaced by Scotland at the T20 World Cup, being played in India and Sri Lanka, after their last government decided not to send the team to India – they wanted to play in Sri Lanka instead – because of geopolitical tensions. The trail of events started with the Indian government asking Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to remove Mustafizur Rahman, the only Bangladesh player in IPL 2026, from their squad, and ended with the ICC excluding the team from the marquee tournament.
In some good news for Bangladesh and the BCB, the ICC announced on February 9 that it would not be penalising Bangladesh for not agreeing to play their T20 World Cup matches in India. The BCB were also given the rights to host an out-of-turn ICC event prior to the 2031 men's ODI World Cup, for which they are co-hosts with India.
"From sports to all other sectors, we want to build a sincere and cordial relationship [with India]," Aminul said. "You know that because of diplomatic complications, we could not play in the World Cup. If those issues had been discussed and settled earlier, our team might have participated."
India are scheduled to tour Bangladesh in September this year, a tour postponed from August 2025, for a series of white-ball matches – three ODIs and three T20Is. That tour, though, was announced before the recent sequence of events.
