'Bowlers’ suspension the greatest setback’

BCB president Nazmul Hasan Papon expressed his frustration at the recent predicament to befallen Taskin Ahmed and Arafat Sunny and pointed out the bowlers’ suspension as the greatest setback for Bangladesh cricket team in this ICC WT20 2016 in India.

“If any bowler does not deliver an illegal delivery, he can still be suspended from International cricket. This is something we weren’t aware of earlier. Unfortunately, this law is only applied in Bangladesh’s context. I think International Cricket Council must re-think about it, and we have been wronged by it, and if there’s any talk about a Bangladesh cricket team’s setback, this is the setback.” BCB president said to the press.

“If you see over a period of time, Taskin has been our main bowler. Not only he is the major bowler, he is our fastest. He bowls at 140 clicks and over while others operating at 126 won’t be effective on Indian batting pitches.”

“Taskin has been bowling fantastic in the last few series he played, he played the World Cup, four series at home and the Asia Cup, nobody raised any voice about his bowling action, and there’s no scope for it either. We have been denied justice, and if you look at our team’s performance, we haven’t scored heavily against any team, we haven’t scored more than 150-160. With such a score we have managed to win only due to our bowling.” Papon added.

“Our two main bowlers have been suspended by ICC and that was our greatest setback, in my opinion, particularly when we qualified for the second round and found ourselves in the toughest group with India, Pakistan, Australia and New Zealand to contend with. Playing against such teams without our key bowlers is really tough.” BCB president explained to the journalists.

On March 19, 2016, International Cricket Council (ICC) announced that independent assessments had found the bowling actions of Bangladesh’s Arafat Sunny and Taskin Ahmed to be illegal and, as such, both the bowlers were suspended from bowling in international cricket with immediate effect.

Arafat and Taskin were reported after their side’s opening match in the ICC World Twenty20 India 2016 against the Netherlands in Dharamsala on Wednesday, 9 March.

On March 23, 2016 International Cricket Council (ICC) announced that Bangladesh ace pacer Taskin Ahmed’s suspension from bowling in international cricket had been upheld by a judicial commissioner. The announcement came after the judicial commissioner conducted hearing of the review petition filed by Taskin.

Tiger cricketer will have to reassess his bowling action by applying to the ICC.

Bangladeshi players in a huddle before the start of a game. File Photo: Firoz Ahmed