Who ignited the fire in the opening game between Fortune Barishal and Rangpur Riders in Tuesday’s fixture of Bangladesh Premier League, the country’s lone franchise-based T20 tournament?
Shakib Al Hasan certainly can’t be excused from taking the blame as he entered the field in the middle of the game to create a controversy.
“When Shakib bhai was shouting from outside and at that point, I decided to change the bowler. If it was done by the batter, I wouldn’t have done that. I would certainly start with my best bowler to bowl,” said Nurul, adding that he witnessed a player coming into the field for the first time in his career.
Shakib angrily entered the field of play at the start of Barishal’s chase against Rangpur and he looked animated as he discussed something with the umpires even before a ball was bowled in the second innings.
Anamul Haque Bijoy and Chaturanga De Silva had come in to open the innings but could not determine which bowler was coming first.
Fortune opener Chaturanga was set to take the strike but he changed his mind and offered Anamul to take the strike seeing Mahedi Hasan with the ball. At that point Nurul decided to change Mahedi with left-arm spinner Rakibul Hasan and seeing this, Shakib shouted from the rope asking Chaturanga to get back into the strike.
Later, Shakib entered the field with his slipper on to talk with the on-field umpire and was seen having some heated conversation with the umpire.
In T20 cricket every ball is important and when the captain was talking the batsman probably did not hear that initially,” said Barishal all-rounder Mehidy Hasan Miraz.
When contacted, BPL’s technical committee head Roqibul Hasan told The Daily Sun that a captain can enter the field only if he takes the permission of the umpire.
“A captain can enter taking the permission of the umpire while you must remember that batsman can change their ends seeing any particular bowler,” said Roqibul.
The question that remains unanswered is whether things would have been the same if Shakib did not shout from the rope to instruct his batsmen as that was the time Nurul decided to play the mind game.
This is not the first time Shakib took a swipe at BPL as he pointed fingers at the standard of the tournament even before the start of the tournament and he was seen going furiously towards the umpire after a wide ball was not given during their match against Sylhet Strikers on January 7.
It was learnt Shakib and Nurul would be fined 15 percent of their match fees while Anamul would be fined the same amount as he showed dissent after being given out by the umpire.
