In South Asia, cricket isn’t just a sport. It’s a primary diplomatic channel. For decades, the game has served as a reliable barometer for the region’s geopolitical health, binding the subcontinent together even when formal diplomacy stalls. However, India has lately repurposed cricket from a soft power tool into a blunt instrument of regional dominance. Limiting this strategy of “cricket coercion” to Islamabad might be understandable given Pakistan’s historical hostility towards India, but applying the same punitive playbook to Bangladesh, especially given the volatility of India’s neighbourhood, is myopic at best and a blunder at worst. Following a month of rapid diplomatic deterioration marked by the mutual summoning of ambassadors and the violent targeting of diplomatic missions in both New Delhi and Dhaka last month, India chose to deploy cricket as a political weapon. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) recently instructed an Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise to release its newly signed Bangladeshi player, Mustafizur Rahman. The move was not a sporting decision but was driven by political concern over attacks on members of minority religious groups in Bangladesh. The retaliation from Dhaka was swift. The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has formally requested to shift its upcoming T20 World Cup matches out of India to Sri Lanka, effectively initiating a sporting boycott. The Bangladeshi government has escalated the dispute by banning all broadcasts of the IPL in the country.
Cricket: Has India’s soft power tool become a strategic liability? | Lowy Institute
