India men’s cricket tour of Bangladesh, scheduled for August, is set to be suspended for the foreseeable future. The series was supposed to see three ODIs and three T20Is between August 17 and 31, but will not go ahead as planned.
Sources say that security concerns amid the domestic unrest in Bangladesh are the primary factor for the derailment. The fall of the Sheikh Hasina government, among other things, has triggered one of the biggest diplomatic stand-offs in the region, souring the relationship between the neighbors.
A statement is expected to come jointly from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB). It’ll likely refer to the decision as a ‘postponement’, not a cancellation.
The BCB has also paused the sale of the tour’s media rights — scheduled to happen on July 7 and July 10 via technical and financial bidding, respectively.
The board originally planned to sell media rights for a two-year period between July 2025 and June 2027. However, it will now sell the rights for the three-match T20I home series against Pakistan, scheduled from July 17 to 25 separately, before working on other matches.
Indian broadcasters are said to have been informed that the series won’t happen, whereas an Invitation To Tender (ITT) hasn’t been made available either. The BCB is hopeful of organising a postponed series, but a statement from the BCCI confirming the current status is expected in the coming week.
In the purely cricketing world, this would mean a delay in Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma’s return to the competitive field, considering they only play ODIs now. However, India and Bangladesh will probably still clash with each other in September under the Asia Cup, which at the moment seems likely to go ahead.
India has already cut bilateral cricketing ties with Pakistan due to the historic diplomatic and cross-border tensions. There were murmurs from within the board — head coach Gautam Gambhir even asked for it publicly — to stop playing against the Men in Green in multi-nation tournaments as well.
However, apart from the Asia Cup, India and Pakistan’s women’s teams are set to clash during the 2025 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.
Source: News18