Sujon Mahmud accuses umpires for threatening him to get out on his own

Two of Bangladesh’s lower tier league matches turned controversial last month. One coach and one player were accused of tarnishing Bangladesh cricket’s reputation but were not adjudged a fair statement by the three-member committee that was formed by BCB to probe the issue.

On May 2, the Bangladesh Cricket Board approved a report which stated that the Lalmatia Club and Fear Fighters Sporting Club be scrapped from the league, bowlers Tasnim Hasan and Sujon Mahmud exiled from the game for 10 years and the coaches, skippers and managers of the two teams handed suspensions of five years each. Umpires Shamsur Rahman and Azizul Bari also received a six months ban for not being able to handle the matches properly.

The three-member committee’s convener Sheikh Sohel, while announcing the final verdict said that the clubs didn’t complain against the umpires but letters in possession of ESPNcricinfo prove that BCB directors received umpiring complaints.

“I want to ask a question to the club officials: why didn’t they give us a letter if this was happening for such a long time? Why didn’t they tell the umpires’ committee? Also, these two umpires did other matches too, why didn’t anything similar happen in those games?” asked Sohel.

Perhaps the umpires were given mediocre punishments since neither of the two teams submitted written complaints against them. But in a new development, it came to be known that Lalmatia bowler Sujon, had written statements submitted to the BCB’s Anti-Corruption.

Sujon’s statement

Sujon wrote in his statement that the umpires didn’t allow their captain to have a look at in whose favour of the coin fell after the completion of the toss. To make matter worse, Sujon was asked by one of the umpires to get out on his own after he smashed a boundary. The umpire further threatened to take charge if he didn’t get out. He claimed that when he was given out stumped, he was well within his crease.

Whoever’s wrongdoing it may have been, the image of Bangladesh cricket was eventually at the receiving end.