In a latest development in the tussle between the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and the cricketers, the BCB President Nazmal Hassan has alleged that there is a conspiracy going on to sabotage the upcoming India tour.
It had all begun with the Bangladeshi cricketers going in strike and cutting off their services from domestic and international cricket on October 21. The players further announced that they would not resume playing until and unless their demands were met.
However, after the board decided to meet their demands, the players called off their strike late on October 23. The matter, though, did not stop there as the BCB chief reportedly lashed out at Mehidy Hasan during a team meeting and issued a show-cause notice to Shakib Al Hasan.
The turmoil that has surrounded the Bangladesh cricket seems to have no end as of now and has further heated up after Hassan’s latest remarks.
“You people (media) haven’t yet seen anything about the India tour. Just wait and watch. If I am saying that I had specific information that this was a conspiracy to sabotage India tour, then you should believe me,” the BCB President was quoted as saying to Bangladeshi daily “Prothom Alo” by PTI.
On being asked to justify his statement, he stated that it was Tamim Iqbal’s last-minute decision to pull himself out of the India tour which made him suspicious and tipped him off to the allegation of conspiracy.
“Tamim had initially told me that he will only skip the second Test (in Kolkata from November 22-26) for the birth of his second child. However, after the meeting with players, Tamim comes to my room and says he wants to opt out of whole tour. I asked him ‘why so?’ But he simply said he won’t go,” Hassan added.
“Now after this, I won’t be surprised if I find that someone else pulls out at the eleventh hour when we would be left with no other options. I have called Shakib to have a chat. Now if he also pulls out, where do I even find a captain? I might have to change whole combination. What do I even do with these players,” he exclaimed.
He went on to express his disappointment about how the senior players behaved in the whole fiasco and accepted that he made a mistake by agreeing to their demands.
“I still can’t believe it. I speak to them every day. They didn’t even intimate me before calling a strike. I feel that it was a mistake on my part to have agreed to their demands. I should have never done that,” the 58-year-year old said.
“I should have told the players, ‘Unless you call off strike, we will not sit with you guys across the negotiation table. Speaking to various member boards, I felt that this should have been our approach but the media also created pressure on us,” the top-boss of Bangladesh cricket added.
Bangladesh’s tour of India will begin in New Delhi with first of the three-match Twenty-20 International (T20I) on November 3. It will be followed by a two-match Test series from November 14.