India's opposition lawmaker Shashi Tharoor from Congress has sharply criticised the omission of Bangladesh fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman from the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) squad, calling the move "shameful" for India and warning against the politicisation of sport amid rising regional tensions.
Mustafizur, one of Bangladesh's most recognisable cricketers, was reportedly signed by KKR for Rs 9.20 crore at the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction. However, his subsequent removal from the squad has triggered public outrage in Bangladesh as well as in India and it escalated into a broader diplomatic and sporting dispute between the two neighbours.
Tharoor, a former UN diplomat and a senior figure in India's Congress party, said the controversy risked damaging India's image and undermining the spirit of international sport. He stressed that cricket should remain insulated from political disagreements and nationalistic pressures.
"Cricket should not be dragged into political controversies and described the India's BCCI's move as "absolutely appalling", Tharoor told an interview with the Indian Express.
"Bangladesh is not Pakistan. Bangladesh has not been dispatching terrorists across the border. It's not a comparable situation at all," Tharoor said, adding that India's diplomatic relationship with Bangladesh is fundamentally different from that with Pakistan.
He questioned the rationale behind targeting KKR for selecting Mustafizur, noting that teams were allowed to choose players from a pool approved by the BCCI itself. "If a player was included in the registered pool, why is a franchise to be blamed for selecting him?" he asked.
Tharoor said it made no cricketing sense and appeared to be a knee-jerk reaction to social media outrage. He also raised concerns about singling out an individual player who, he said, has never engaged in hate speech or made any statements against India.
There is a moral issue here," Tharoor said. "Why must cricket alone bear the burden of public anger when India continues to engage with Bangladesh at multiple levels? Who are we victimising here - a professional sportsman who has done nothing wrong?"
Tharoor further questioned whether the move signalled discrimination, asking whether Bangladeshi Hindu cricketers such as Litton Das or Soumya Sarkar - both of whom have played in the IPL before - would have faced similar treatment had they been selected.
The Mustafiz issue has spilled into preparations for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup, scheduled to be co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka next month. Bangladesh has formally informed the International Cricket Council (ICC) that it will not send its team to play World Cup matches in India, requesting that those fixtures be relocated to a neutral venue-preferably Sri Lanka.
Cricketing relations between Bangladesh and India have come under increasing strain amid wider political tensions.
Neither KKR nor the IPL governing body has issued a detailed public explanation regarding Mustafizur's removal. The ICC has yet to respond formally to Bangladesh's request for World Cup fixture relocations.
As the controversy deepens, observers warn that the standoff risks setting a troubling precedent for international cricket, where political disputes could increasingly influence player participation and tournament logistics.
