&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Govt probe holds Asif Nazrul solely responsible for Bangladesh’s 2026 T20 World Cup withdrawal")
Months after Bangladesh refused to travel to India for the 2026 T20 World Cup, citing a security threat, a Bangladesh government probe found Asif Nazrul, the sports advisor during the interim government’s reign, to be solely responsible for Bangladesh’s withdrawal from the ICC tournament. A three-member committee released its findings on Tuesday (Sep 15), concluding that the BCB, at that time, lacked ‘independent strategic leadership, crisis diplomacy capability and long-term planning’ while dealing with this high-level issue.
On January 24 -- 20 days before the start of the 20-team tournament in India and Sri Lanka – after weeks of drama involving the ICC, BCB, and the BCCI, the apex body replaced Bangladesh with the next top-ranked non-qualified team, Scotland, for the T20 World Cup. The decision came after a majority of the ICC board voted against Bangladesh’s participation after the BCB refused to send its team to India for their scheduled Group B matches.
However, it all started after the BCCI ordered IPL franchise KKR to release seamer Mustafizur Rahman following regular attacks on minorities in Bangladesh.
Instead of discussing Mustafizur’s case internally, Nazrul -- effectively the country's sports minister at the time – took to his Facebook page, announcing BCB’s decision not to send its cricket team to India, fearing security concerns for the travelling entourage. The BCB also urged the ICC to move Bangladesh’s league matches to Sri Lanka, which the ICC denied, leading to Bangladesh’s exit from the tournament.
In May, Aminul Haque -- Bangladesh's new sports minister – announced that a three-member committee, including Dr AKM Oli Ullah, additional secretary of the administration sub-division at the Ministry of Youth and Sports, former Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar and Barrister Faisal Dastagir, would probe why Bangladesh pulled out of the 2026 T20 World Cup.
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The committee questioned several key members of Bangladesh Cricket, including its T20I captain Litton Das, Test captain Najmul Hossain Shanto, assistant coach Mohammad Salahuddin, BCB president Tamim Iqbal, chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury and former general secretary Syed Ashraful Huq, before concluding its decision.
Almost everyone pointed fingers at Nazrul for being solely responsible for Bangladesh’s withdrawal from the T20 World Cup. Shanto, Litton and then-BCB president Aminul Islam met with Nazrul, a day after the ICC warned BCB of repercussions. The two captains claimed Nazrul went ahead with that decision despite players’ positive response to playing in India.
Taking to his Facebook page two days before the elections, Nazrul said the government and the players decided not to travel to India for the T20 World Cup; he took a U-turn on his stance and admitted to taking the call on Bangladesh’s withdrawal from the competition in a social media post hours after the government report went public on Tuesday.
"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,” Nazrul wrote in a Facebook post.
