“It is pretty disgraceful that sport has been politicised” - Shashi Tharoor opens up on Pakistan’s decision to boycott India game in T20 WC

Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor has opened up the growing politicisation of cricket following Pakistan’s decision to boycott the India group stage fixture in the forthcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2026 campaign, scheduled to be played on Sunday, February 15, at a neutral venue.

Speaking exclusively to the Economic Times, Tharoor has requested all the stakeholders to engage in a conversation and find a common solution to prevent the situation from escalating further. 

Furthermore, Tharoor also talked about Mustafizur Rahman’s IPL episode, adding that the Bangladeshi pacer should not have been denied his IPL 2026 contract, stating that Bangladesh’s reaction was excessive.

“It is pretty disgraceful that sport has been politicised in this way on both sides, frankly. I don't think that Mustafizur (Bangladeshi cricketer Mustafizur Rahman) should have been denied his contract to play in Kolkata. It was most unfortunate. Intrusion of politics, I think the Bangladeshi reaction was an overreaction but it is also a reflection of the same and Pakistan is trying to show its solidarity with Bangladesh. This whole thing is spiralling out of control,” Tharoor told as per Economic Times.

“I think we need to really need to come to an understanding that sports, especially a sport like Cricket which means so much to all the people, should be a means of bringing us together at least on the playing field, rather than allowing this to go on like this. I honestly think this is now a wake up call for all concerned to contact each other on an emergency basis, the ICC could be the platform for it - just say, let's call off this nonsense...You can't go on like this forever,” Tharoor added.

India squad: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Rinku Singh.

Pakistan squad: Salman Ali Agha (c), Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Khawaja Nafay, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Salman Mirza, Naseem Shah, Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shadab Khan, Usman Khan, Usman Tariq.

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