Bangladesh opens door to IPL broadcast

Zahir Uddin Swapan, the newly appointed information and broadcasting minister, said there is no bar on telecasting the upcoming Indian Premier League in Bangladesh.

Earlier, Aminul Haque, the state minister for youth and sports, had indicated they would speak with the concerned authorities regarding the IPL broadcast after it was banned by the previous interim government.

"No one applied to us to telecast the IPL. We don't want to mix politics with sport. We will look at it from a commercial perspective, and if any channel applies to telecast the IPL, we will consider it positively," Swapan said.

When asked whether Star Sports can telecast the IPL, Swapan indicated that it could. "We will not bar anyone from telecasting it. If Star Sports want to telecast it, they can. If any of our channels want to telecast it, we will take it positively, but we will not force anything," he said.

The Cable Operators Association of Bangladesh's office secretary, Rezaul Karim Lablu, said they will not stop Star Sports from telecasting the IPL as there are no directives from the government. "If Star Sports telecast the IPL in Bangladesh, they can do it because no one has asked us to stop it," Lablu said.

"Those directives of the interim government do not have any value. If this government asks us to stop it, we will do so, because the previous government's directives are no longer in place," he added.