The mud-sling between Lutfur Rahman Badal and the Bangladesh Cricket Board reached a whole new level after it was revealed yesterday that the cricket board security wing chief Major (retd) Hossain Imam filed a case against the Dhaka Premier League club owner under Speedy Trial Act.
According to the officer-in-charge of Mirpur Model Thana Salauddin Ahmed Khan, a case against Badal was filed on Monday accusing the Legends of Rupganj owner of vandalising BCB property on the night of December 6 (last Saturday).
In the case Imam stated, Badal, accompanied by a group of 30 people, made a surprise visit to the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium premises on Saturday night and vandalised cricket board property while he also mentioned Badal sending threats to few BCB directors over phone on the same night.
An arrest warrant against Badal has been issued by the Mirpur Model Thana and the police also made couple visits to his residence in Banani DOHS but he is yet to be located.
Badal, who is usually very co-operative with the media, did not pick up any calls and was no where to be found following the recent development.
It was just day before yesterday (Tuesday) that the cricket board following Badal’s public apology – and after two meetings in the space of six hours – handed Badal a life-time ban from all sort of cricketing activities. The Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metropolis (CCDM) in a long meeting decided to temporarily ban Badal from the Dhaka Premier League and forwarded the issue to the BCB disciplinary panel seeking higher punishment.
Hours before CCDM’s meeting Badal made a public apology for his comments and remarks, but that hardly made his bigger opponents go soft.
The higher punishment took just couple hours to arrive as in the presence of several high-ups and influential BCB directors of the cricket board, the BCB disciplinary committee sat within 30 minutes of CCDM’s decision and banned Badal for life. Alongside Badal, Legends of Rupganj joint secretary Tarikul Islamm Tito and manager Sabbir Ahmed Rubel were slammed with a five-year and three-year ban respectively.
The high-ups of the cricket board denied any “on-record” comment on the issue and its development as they tagged it “sensitive”. Even the BCB disciplinary committee chief, Sheikh Sohel denied making any comment in the media. The only words Sohel uttered following the decision were, “It was a prestigious issue.”
However, seeking anonymity a BCB director said, “The decision was made after considering the book of BCB regulations very thoroughly.”
The conflict between the two parties – Badal and BCB – started when the Legend of Rupganj owner publicly accused (with poorly chosen words) the board president Nazmul Hasan and few of the BCB directors working against his team’s downfall.
This development in the all-hate relationship is probably more sensitive than the banning of Mohammad Ashraful from cricket as this involves the ones who should be responsible for running cricket properly. Guilty of match-fixing, Ashraful appeared for several hearings before being handed a seven-year ban from cricket. However, the decision to ban Badal for life-time took little time and no hearing at all.
Stakeholders of cricket in the country believes Badal’s act was wrong while they also think the BCB could have handled the matter in a whole different way which could have been appropriate.