No IPL telecast in Bangladesh as JioStar terminates broadcast agreement

Bangladeshi cricket fans will be left without live coverage of the Indian Premier League this season after JioStar abruptly cancelled its broadcast agreement with local partner TSports, citing chronic payment defaults.

In a terse letter quoted by Reuters, the regional streaming giant said “the agreement stands terminated with immediate effect,” ending TSports’ sublicence for IPL and Women’s Premier League rights that had run from 2023 through 2027. JioStar blamed its partner’s “continued failure and default in adhering to the payment timelines stipulated under the agreement,” making clear that both marquee tournaments will now go dark across Bangladeshi screens.

The development deepens an existing freeze on IPL broadcasts in the country. An earlier ban was imposed after relations soured between the Bangladesh Cricket Board and the Board of Control for Cricket in India, sparked by Kolkata Knight Riders’ release of Bangladesh fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman, who had been bought for Rs 9.20 crore, following BCCI directives.

Tensions have only escalated since the political upheaval in Dhaka last August, when former prime minister Sheikh Hasina departed in the wake of a mass uprising. Against that backdrop, the collapse of the JioStar-TSports deal leaves Bangladeshi audiences without a legal viewing option for the world’s most lucrative T20 competition and its fledgling women’s equivalent.