mumbai
\nIndian billionaire Mukesh Ambani\u2019s entertainment venture JioStar has terminated its broadcast deals in Bangladesh for the Indian Premier League cricket tournament, saying its local partner defaulted on payments, according to a document seen by Reuters.
\nBangladesh in January banned IPL broadcasts after one of its teams, Kolkata Knight Riders, dropped Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman on the Indian cricket board\u2019s instruction, just as tensions rose between the two countries following the killing of a Hindu man in Bangladesh.
\nThough Bangladesh is reviewing the ban and had on Saturday said any further steps will depend on the opinion of its sports ministry, the termination by JioStar means there will be no local broadcaster for the IPL season, even if the country were to change its stance.
\n\u201cThe agreement stands terminated with immediate effect,\u201d JioStar said in a letter dated February 17 to Bangladesh broadcaster TSports, which had sublicensed the rights from JioStar for IPL seasons from 2023 to 2027.
\nThe company cited its partner\u2019s \u201ccontinued failure and default in adhering to the payment timelines stipulated under the agreement\u201d.
\nJioStar, a joint venture of Ambani\u2019s Reliance and Walt Disney, did not respond to Reuters queries. TSports and Bangladesh\u2019s sports and information ministries also did not respond to requests for comment.
\nIPL, the world\u2019s richest cricket league valued at $18.5 billion, enjoys huge popularity among the cricket-viewing public in Bangladesh, where the game is an obsession like it is in the rest of the subcontinent. Its latest season started on March 28.
\nIndia-Bangladesh relations have been strained since a political transition in Dhaka in August 2024 disrupted previously close ties under former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who fled to New Delhi after a mass uprising.
\nBut there are signs of a thaw in the relations after Tarique Rahman, the newly formed government\u2019s prime minister, said in February that Bangladesh would engage on the basis of mutual respect and shared interests with its neighbours.
\nA separate JioStar letter, also dated February 17, showed the company has also terminated its broadcast deals in Bangladesh for the Women\u2019s Premier League cricket tournament over similar defaults.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
mumbai Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani\u2019s entertainment venture JioStar has terminated its broadcast deals in Bangladesh for the Indian Premier League cricket tournament, saying its local partner defaulted on payments, according to a document seen by Reuters. Bangladesh in January banned IPL broadcasts after one of its teams, Kolkata Knight Riders, dropped Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":95644,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95626"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95645,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95626\/revisions\/95645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}