VADODARA: Cricket seems set to bear the full impact of the escalating tensions between India and Bangladesh. TOI has learnt that India’s leading cricket equipment manufacturer SG, which currently sponsors some of Bangladesh’s top cricketers, including captain Litton Das and Mominul Haque, has put its contracts with the duo in a limbo.“Their sponsorship contracts were coming up for renewal. That process has been slowed down’ amidst the current heightened political and cricketing tensions between India and Bangladesh,” a source tracking developments told TOI on Sunday.
“In fact, another leading Indian sports equipment manufacturing company, Sareen Sports Industries (SS) had cancelled the sponsorship contracts of four-five top Bangladesh cricketers last year, when trouble began in Bangladesh. However, things may change if the relations improve between the two countries,” informed another source.The increasing tension between India and Bangladesh is thus set to result in Bangladesh’s cricket industry being hit badly financially.“It’s not just about player contracts not being renewed for now. The political instability and uncertain times in Bangladesh has meant that SG has stopped the distribution of its cricket equipment in Bangladesh since the last six months. In fact, there used to be a lot of sports apparel which used to be manufactured in Bangladesh’s factories and then supplied to SG and other sports equipment manufacturers in India. That supply line too has dried up for the past year or so,” informed the source.In a nutshell, the tensions between the two countries are set to badly hurt Bangladesh’s sports industry, as India’s leading sports manufacturers have stopped sponsoring the country’s players, and halted the distribution of their sports equipment to Bangladesh.The tensions between the neighboring countries flared up when the BCCI asked the Kolkata Knight Riders to release Bangladesh’s star left-arm pace bowler, Mustafizur Rehman, from their squad, from his contract in IPL-2026 after they bought him in the auction on Nov for Rs 9.20 cr. Reacting strongly to the development, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) raised serious concerns over the security situation in India and requested the International Cricket Council (ICC) to move their four matches in the 2026 T20 World Cup from India to Sri Lanka.The BCB have twice formally requested the International Cricket Council to relocate Bangladesh’s fixtures to Sri Lanka for the World Cup. The ICC is yet to decide on their request. Currently, Bangladesh are placed in Group C of the tournament, with fixtures against the West Indies, Italy, and England in Kolkata on February 7, 9, and 14, respectively. Their final group-stage match will be against Nepal in Mumbai on February 17.
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