Bangladeshi team in protest concedes 92 off 4 balls

DHAKA: A Bangladeshi cricket team conceded 92 runs in just four balls to deliberately lose a match in what they called a protest over biased umpiring in their league. In the 50-over match of Dhaka Second Division League on Tuesday, Lalmatia Club were dismissed for just 88 off 14 overs before opponents Axiom Cricketers reached 92-0 off just four balls.

Lalmatia’s opening bowler Sujon Mahmud sent down 13 wides and three no-balls in the first over and all of them raced to the boundary, costing his side a further 80 runs. Axiom opener Mustafizur Rahman struck three fours in four legitimate boundaries to take his side home in just 0.4 overs to complete a 10-wicket win in the capital’s City Club ground. Lalmatia Club secretary Adnan Rahman said his player bowled the wides and noballs deliberately as a mark of protest for poor umpiring. “Throughout the league we were subjected to poor umpiring,” Adnan said.

The secretary alleged the umpires did not even allow the team captain to see the coin after toss. “They tossed the coin and said: Okay you bat. Very soon we found our team had lost five wickets for just 11 runs inside seven overs,” he said.

Another club official claimed to AFP on condition of anonymity that umpires were biased against Lalmatia throughout the season, as at least one of its leading lights is linked to the main opposition party. The match angered the Bangladesh Cricket Board, which organises club cricket in Dhaka. The president of the BCB is a lawmaker in the ruling party and is close to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. “This is very unusual ... so many wides and no-balls,” BCB spokesman Jalal Yunus told AFP. “We have asked match officials to submit a report in this regard. Once we’ve received the report, we will launch a formal investigation.”

Meanwhile, cricket umpires have been given the power to eject disobedient players while tethered bails will be permitted to protect wicketkeepers from eye injuries as part of a series of law changes coming into effect from Oct. 1.

The new ‘Players conduct’ rule will allow on-field officials to remove a misbehaving competitor temporarily or permanently and award five penalty runs to the opposition, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) has said.

If a captain refuses to remove his offending player, the umpire can award the match to the opposition. If both captains refuse to comply, the contest can be abandoned.

The MCC, the custodians of the game’s laws, also merged “handled the ball” offence with “obstructing the field”, thus reducing the number of possible dismissals from 10 to nine. It also ratified the proposal of tethered bails to protect wicketkeepers from the type of injuries that ended South African Mark Boucher’s career in 2012. Boucher was hit in the eye by flying bails in a tour match in England, which forced him into retirement.

“Law 8.4 has been changed, to help prevent injuries, to allow specially designed mechanisms which tether the bails to the stumps, thereby restricting the distance that they can fly off the stumps but without limiting their ability to be dislodged,” the MCC said.

The MCC also approved bat restrictions and allowed substitutes to keep wicket. — Agencies