The performance of the Bangladesh team in the World Cup in Australia has kept the whole nation busy but in the mean time in a shocking revelation the local cricket has yet again been struck by fears of match-fixing.
Khulna Divisional Sports Association (KDSA) Monday lodged a written complaint to the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) accusing Rangpur of match fixing against Dhaka Metro who apparently lost deliberately in the last game of the 16th National Cricket League.
The NCL first-class tournament has often been dubbed as “lackluster” and cricketers were termed as taking the annual event as a “picnic” but the latest accusations involving one of the major team Dhaka are simply disgraceful.
Khulna and Rangpur, along with Dhaka division, entered the last round matches tied on 96 points. Khulna defeated Chittagong inside three days by an innings and 24 runs and earned 24 points to end with a total 120 points.
However, Rangpur literally snatched the title away as they achieved 121 points by bowling Metro out in the penultimate over of the day.
Khulna team manager Mostafizur Rahman accompanied by few other KDSA officials visited the BCB Monday and submitted their allegation to the BCB tournament committee and disciplinary committee where they claimed the players of the Metro side threw the game away intentionally.
The KDSA officials also submitted a “35-minute voice recording” as an evidence to their claim.
Dhaka Tribune obtained a copy of the voice recording where at least five persons are heard discussing on how to stop the Metro players from conceding the result.
It is understood that the discussion was between Khulna and Dhaka Metro officials and took place on the night before the final day of the game between Rangpur and Dhaka Metro at BKSP-2 on Thursday, March 12.
The Dhaka Metro side is captained by discarded national batsman Marshal Ayub. Other players are Saykat Ali, Shadman Islam, Mehedi Maruf, Shamsur Rahman, Asif Ahmed, Sharif Ullah, Jabid Hossain, Asif Hasan, Elias Sunny, Shohid Abu Haydar, Md Sohag Reza, Mehrab Hossain Jr, SK Waliul Karim Rony, Sk Ashiquzzaman and Moinul Islam Sohel. Former Bangladesh national cricketers Hannan Sarkar and Mehrab Hossain Opee are the two coaches for the team.
Following are excerpts of the voice recording:
Person 1: I spoke to Sohel (Sheikh Sohel) who is in Australia and told him about this. He asked me if I am sure about the issue, I said I am confirm. I told him the coaches are not involved. Some players in the team are involved and have done this. He told me to tell everyone one thing, “It doesn’t matter when I come back to Dhaka or if the team is champion or not, I will find out everyone involved in it and will make sure they are punished. And talk to Akram bhai and few others and see what they say.”
I told him Opee and Hannan are not involved with this.
Person 2: Doesn’t matter how many times you say, people will think we are involved in this.
Person 3: Spend some money from your pocket if you need to and get a videographer (video-man) and make him shoot the game tomorrow. Get the video of the game tomorrow from the very first over. If needed you get two cameras. What I will do in the morning is go directly to the match referee and tell him whatever that has happened and whatever I have in my knowledge. I will tell the referee that I couldn’t handle my players. If the match referee calls the captains of the two teams and tells them that they already have information and also that the match will be called off the moment he finds anything fishy – this is just to scare them and make sure they doesn’t do anything wrong.
Person 2: No no no, what we can do is we will keep the match referee informed and he will observe the game. And also tell the two captains that he has information and if things are wrong he will report to the BCB and the board will take action against those players.
Person 2: Ok, I am making sure this is done. The result will not be in question, what will be in question is the approach. Any team can lose 10 wickets and lose the game but what will be observed is the approach of the players.
Person 3: Sharifullah didn’t bat in the first innings. We saw the umpires drop the bails which meant Dhaka declared the first innings. He was not injured nothing, he was simply not let to bat. There was a huge argument on this decision in the dressing room.
Person 1: Bangladesh cricket expects a lot from you guys and I was sure that Opee and Hannan are not a part of it. I got hints (that things will be wrong in this game) from Rajon.
Person 4: Everyone at the moment knows that things are happening right. Now everyone will doubt on the result even if the game is genuine. The main issue here is Opee and Hannan have just joined and everyone will point fingers at them.
Person 3: The board is really hard on indiscipline, they didn’t even spare player like Shakib so anyone who is involved in this will be in big trouble.
Person1: Shariful (Sharifullah) not batting raised major doubts. It was really surprising not to see him bat.
Person 2: I was sitting right in the dressing room. I went to the physiotherapist and the captain and asked them if it was not necessary to inform me about Shariful’s injury and that he was not batting. What does this mean? I told the physiotherapist straight away to send him to Dhaka for treatment. If he is injured, I don’t need him the dressing room.
Person 4: Opee bhai, listen, the only way out from this is tell everyone in the team meeting that they have no option but to draw the game tomorrow if they want everything to be normal. It is better if they can win the game, which will be tough.
