No balls, wides reign as Bangladesh bowler protests umpiring

DHAKA, (Reuters) - A Bangladesh club cricketer peppered the field with no balls and wides to concede 92 runs in four legal deliveries in an extraordinary protest against poor umpiring in the Dhaka Second Division Cricket League, local media reported yesterday.

Lalmatia Club’s Sujon Mahmud bowled 15 no balls to go with 13 wides that also raced to the boundary in his side’s match against Axiom Cricketers.

His four legal deliveries went for 12 runs as Axiom won by 10 wickets.

Lalmatia had been dismissed for 88 after being put into bat with the team unimpressed at several umpiring decisions that went against them in the match on Tuesday. “It started at the toss,” Lalmatia general secretary Adnan Rahman Dipon told the Dhaka Tribune.

“My captain was not allowed to see the coin and we were sent to bat first and ... the umpires’ decisions went against us.” The tournament has been plagued by umpiring controversy and Fear Fighters Sporting Club’s Tasnim Hasan did something similar on Monday, conceding 69 runs in seven legitimate deliveries to protest against the umpiring. Coach of the junior national table tennis team Linden Johnson is pretty pumped up about the upcoming Caribbean Cadet and Junior Table tennis championship set to serve off at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall from tomorrow.

Johnson spoke to Stabroek Sports yesterday while some of the players were adding a few finishing touches to their game.

“Personally I have a lot of confidence in the players and I can tell you that I’ve seen a lot improvements, especially from the under 18 players,” Johnson commented.

He added, “On the boys, I presume that they can do a great lot in the tournament as long as they put their game together and they remain disciplined.”

Commenting on the girls, Johnson expressed a few concerns and stressed that they needed to be positive to overcome any challenges.

“For the girls, they have to hold the forte. They have to be more positive and once they do that, they will be a hard team to get past, looking at the other teams that are coming in,” he noted.

The players have been rigorously going through their paces under the watchful eyes of the coach daily at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall geared at getting the junior nationals in ideal shape to take on the rest of the Caribbean.

Johnson explained that the players are currently in the final stages of preparation while also expressing satisfaction at the rate of which the