How the killings of Hindus in Bangladesh landed Shah Rukh and his IPL team in trouble

Team TOI Plus
Jan 3, 2026 | 19:55 IST

SRK’s Kolkata Knight Riders winning the bidding for Bangladesh’s ace pacer made the star a political target. Some, rather belatedly, realised that the BCCI was more at fault. But the question remains – should sports be mixed with geopolitics?

Three Hindus have been killed in Bangladesh in less than a month. Over the past year and a half, tensions between India and its eastern neighbour have steadily worsened.

Against this backdrop, it was perhaps inevitable that the Indian Premier League (IPL) — one of India’s most watched sporting spectacles — would find itself pulled into a geopolitical storm.
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