College students win school tournament?

A school tournament won with college-going players. While such incidents are not unheard of in local tournaments, interestingly, this time, allegations were made that it happened in the National School Cricket Tournament, organised by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB).

Golapganj's MC Academy beat Syed Hatim Ali High School by 135 runs in the final. However, Syed Hatim Ali High School alleged that the majority of the MC Academy players are college-going students.

Wicketkeeper Navil Absar graduated SSC with a GPA of 4.67 last year. Currently Absar is studying in MC Academy college's science discipline and a copy of his SSC mark sheet was obtained by The Daily Star.

According to BCB's rules and regulations, a side can include up to five players from another school but all the players must be school-going.

Munna Ahmed, one of the players in the playing eleven, uploaded a picture of him being awarded the player-of-the-match on his Facebook account. However, no player named Munna was found in the team sheet. Hatim Ali School alleged that a different name was used for the player to show that he was still a school student.

There are allegations that Shanto Dey, player-of-the-final, used his younger brother's name and that his actual name is Shuvo Dey. Shanto is a class 10 student and Shuvo used his younger brother's name to play the match.

One player named Shakib Ahmed also uploaded pictures on Facebook of him playing but his name was not found in the team sheet either. Allegations are that he played under the name 'Rifat'. There were two players named Rifat -- Rubayet Khan Rifat and Tahmid Ahmed Rifat -- in the playing eleven but it could not be ascertained whose name the player used during the match.

"We formed the team with school-going students but the opposition team took players from college unit. They used fake names," Syed Hatim Ali High School's sports teacher Abdul mazid told The Daily Star. 

"We have a player who was born after September 2005 and he is studying in class 10. But despite the player being eligible, we did not include him in the squad as he looks a bit older. It's unfortunate that the opposition did not follow the rules and we're hoping the officials will look into it," Mazid added.

Sylhet Cricket Committee secretary Toqrimul Haque Kabi told The Daily Star that he was aware of such allegations and that they will look into the matter if a written complaint is filed.

"During the group stages, they notified us verbally but we wanted a written complaint since the registration took place online through the BCB app. We weren't involved in the selection process. Every year we do the selection on the basis of who are eligible but this year we didn't get the opportunity to do the selection process. Once a written complaint is filed, we will send it to the BCB. We were able to curb such underhanded tactics before but this year the BCB are seeing to these things," Toqrimul said.

MC Academy teacher Sujit Kumar Talkukdar said that he was not aware of any such things happening.

"To my knowledge, there isn't a possibility of such things happening. They should have filed a written complaint before the game. I didn't attend the game but the sports teacher was involved. We don't believe in hiding identity to become first. If it has happened, this is a serious matter and we will look into it," Sujit said.

When contacted, BCB's age-level Cricket Committee chairman Obed Nizam informed that he will look into the matter. "The responsibility to organise the [district-level] matches  was given to the local districts. I will look into the matter when I return to the country," he said.