Explained : How BCCI Turned Indian Cricket Into a Hindutva Spectacle and Its Impact

In Ancient Greek mythology, anything King Midas touched turned to gold. In present-day India, every institution of consequence has weakened under its master’s touch. Election Commission, Enforcement Department, legacy media have become hollow shells, and joining this expanding list is the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

One can argue that BCCI is not an “institution” in the same sense. However, it can no longer primarily claim to be a sporting body either. For a while now, muscular power and commercial interests have shaped the cricket board and, through it, the trajectory of Indian cricket. Indian Premier League (IPL) took place even when the severe Delta wave of COVID-19 singed homes across the nation, with cricket and crematoriums coming together in a dystopian reality. It later moved to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) nonchalantly, for nothing could break a league full of revenues. Now, cricket itself is broken.

BCCI tangled in its own web

Powerful and with coffers brimming over, BCCI’s influence on world cricket has been a masterclass. But as the uneasy countdown to the T20 World Cup showed, has it tangled in its own web? There is little doubt that BCCI’s strings are being pulled by the government as it steamrolls its domestic politics to the cricket pitch. The most powerful cricket board in the world stands naked as an extension of the ruling party furthering its divisive agenda.

Matters have gone beyond the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, becoming the one-stop for any match that matters, despite fans who need a class in sporting spirit. Or the exclusion of reputed stadiums like Mohali in Punjab that, in the past, hosted crucial World Cup encounters but now pay the price for being a venue in an opposition-ruled State.

India’s unofficial national sport has been weaponised. In Modi’s era, cricket is the biggest tool to whip up hyper-nationalism and further a religious divide that has consumed the country’s online space and emboldened the right wing offline. The game has been coloured, and its hues are Muslim and Hindu. There are many stakeholders in this hate, and Bangladesh, a Muslim nation, can only be wrong.

Nor is it cricket for cricket’s sake. The loudest voices do not belong to those who wake up before dawn on a chilly winter day to watch the Boxing Day match in Australia on television or ever recognise Richie Benaud’s commentary from the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). Instead of stadiums filled with fans who were present in equal parts for the love of the game as in support of their team, Indian cricket has now become a playground for performative nationalism. It comes with hostility, hysteria, and jingoism. Some days it is hard to tell the difference between watching Bollywood movies that are hitting cinema halls lately and a cricket match.

The tipping point for the crisis was in January when Shah Rukh Khan’s IPL team, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), released Mustafizur Rahman, the only Bangladeshi cricketer to play in the cash-rich league. As reports on attacks on Hindu minorities in Bangladesh made headlines and outrage peaked on X, the BCCI reportedly instructed the IPL team to cancel the player’s contract worth Rs.9.20 crore. The infamous IT cells and the aggressive right wing, who wait for moments like these, had found sustenance. In a reminder of the witch hunt against his son Aryan a few years back, once again, superstar SRK’s name was Khan. A BJP leader called him a traitor for the IPL hire and announced with a flourish that the actor, whose father was a freedom fighter, had no right to live in India.

As the barometer for nationalism continued to slide, social media gaslighting and servile television studios erupted over the attack on Hindus of Bangladesh yet remained silent when a Manipuri gangrape survivor died. She was the one who was India’s child.

It is also worth pointing out that the Indian government continues to shelter former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who fled Dhaka in August 2024. This, though, does not fit the narrative. What aligns with it, however, is the upcoming election in West Bengal, which is also the home base of KKR, and the BJP grabbed the chance to polarise through cricket.

Bangladesh, meanwhile, stood up where many have caved in. Flinging the issue of safety concerns back at the BCCI, it refused to travel to India for the International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s T20 World Cup and asked to play its matches in Sri Lanka, a neutral venue and a tournament co-host. There was a precedent.

In the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy, India did not travel to Pakistan and played its matches in Dubai. While other countries in the tournament travelled to different grounds for their matches, India stayed rested in what became its home base. It waited for teams to fly to Dubai to play with it in what was not a level playing field. It had also set a template. Despite BCCI’s belief that if it sneezed, other cricket boards will cover their faces, Bangladesh refused to look away.

ICC, a toothless tiger with Jay Shah as the chairman, not surprisingly, refused to entertain the country. Incidentally, Shah’s father, Home Minister Amit Shah, has in the past used venomous remarks against Bangladesh migrants, calling them termites and threatening to uproot them.

It is no secret that BCCI runs cricket as its fiefdom and keeps others in check with its financial influence. It is more than a murmur that the offices of the BCCI and ICC have become interchangeable. To quote Ravi Shastri, “India is the big Daddy of World cricket. India runs the Cricket World currently.” Much of the crisis could have been averted if the ICC looked at Bangladesh’s plea with an open mind. Instead, it played into sports journalist Sharda Ugra’s words, who calls “ICC the Dubai office of the BCCI”. Bangladesh kept its spine and stayed home, replaced by Scotland, though when the line between politics and sports blurs, no one asks the athletes or questions their interests.

Pakistan joins Bangladesh

Apart from their obsession with the game, if there is one thing in common between the cricket-playing nations of the subcontinent, it is the ability to self-destruct and be run out by blind emotions and opportunistic politics while their cricket boards lock heads at the drop of a catch. In a cascading effect, Pakistan too has rushed in where angels fear to tread. Mohsin Naqvi—the Asia Cup Trophy runaway and Pakistan Cricket Board chief—has cleared his country’s team to boycott the match against India in Colombo on February 15. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was reportedly part of the consultations. At a time when India’s relations with its neighbours are not the friendliest, BCCI’s actions have succeeded in uniting Pakistan and Bangladesh, separated into two nations in 1971 after the bloody Bangladesh Liberation War, and opening a new front through cricket diplomacy.

Here is the funny thing, though. India and Pakistan do not play bilateral series, yet at every tournament worth a ticket, they are on course for the marquee clash that keeps fans on edge and revenues on the uptick. Why else did BCCI (and the government) allow India to play Pakistan not once but three times, even when the tragedy of the terror attack on tourists in Pahalgam was fresh in every citizen’s mind? The Asia Cup matches also took place while the government insisted Operation Sindoor was still underway.

To cover up, optics were sold as war-winning tactics. The team led by Suryakumar Yadav refused to shake hands with the opponents, a gesture that was ugly and reinforced why politics and sports should not mix. India and Pakistani cricketers have played out this intense rivalry in the past with dignity and even a hint of camaraderie. The current generation of cricketers with their actions and bluster have made the pitch a war zone. They have internalised their instructions well.

Cricket without a straight drive has few loyalties. Kapil’s Devils—members of the 1983 Prudential World Cup-winning squad—were abused for questioning the team’s on-field behaviour. Syed Kirmani, the wicketkeeper of the legendary team, was aggressively reminded of his faith. These are the same players who brought cricket to every home in the country and gave BCCI an entry into the world of power and money. As it stands today, the sport no longer has its game face on.

BCCI had its cake and wanted to eat it too. Jay Shah was conspicuous by his absence from the stadium for the final. The show he made sure went on. BCCI’s relationship with Pakistani cricket is not unlike India’s current foreign policy. There are no answers.

The gap in cricketing terms between the two nations is a big gulf, and the real rivalry on many days lies elsewhere, but whipping national sentiment is more than a cringe fest. During the Asia Cup, jawans who guard our borders were propped in front of giant screens to watch India play Pakistan.

The traditional rivals once scored more points through on-field exploits and witty television advertisements targeting the other team. Despite the tumultuous relations between the two countries, there was beauty in this cricket rivalry. Today, ugliness and hate are exploited for commercial interests, a reason we still have not heard the last word on the India-Pakistan match.

Cricket, beloved of the subcontinent (and with 12 Test-playing nations easier to dominate than most other sports), is like a new ball that loses its shine. Most sports federations in the country are run by politicians, but cricket with its billion followers played differently. The BCCI has made it a part of a BJP toolkit, fractured and coloured with the lens of Hindutva where cricketers of Muslim origin are judged not for their form but for their faith.

Where does cricket go from here? BCCI still holds the purse strings. And money talks. Even before the controversy dies down BCCI will schedule more series, and the game will go on. But along the way something vital has been lost. Like the social fabric of our country, cricket too has bitten the dust and become a majoritarian spectacle. Even before the first ball was bowled.

Jyotsna Mohan is a senior journalist and the author of Stoned, Shamed, Depressed and co-author of Pratap: A Defiant Newspaper.

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