Bangladesh received a bolt from the blue on Saturday when the International Cricket Council announced that bowlers Arafat Sunny and Taskin Ahmed had been suspended with immediate effect after finding their bowling actions to be illegal.
“Losing two key players is a big blow,” skipper Mashrafe Mortaza said on the eve of their match against Australia here on Sunday. “We are very upset with the decision. It’s very disappointing. We still believe that Taskin is alright. Again, we can’t do anything at the moment. We have to go through the process but we’re disappointed.”
Mortaza, choosing his words very carefully knowing any criticism of the ICC could leave him in trouble, felt Taskin’s action was clean. “Taskin was reported after a match. The tests were done accordingly. We have gone through the footage — not a single delivery in that match was illegal. How can he be suspended then? There were some issues during the testing.
“Not with his full-length deliveries but with his bouncers. But we have seen that he didn’t bowl any bouncers in that game. Do you still suspend him or not?,” the skipper questioned, speaking in Bengali.
“Maybe we will accept the decision on Sunny. But we believe Taskin’s action is legal. We will tell what we can to the BCB. Then BCB will discuss it with ICC. ICC has always encouraged and promoted young cricketers and I hope they do that with Taskin also.”
Mortaza said the only way to recover from this blow is to come out and play hard cricket. “The best we can do is make a statement on the field. I want us to perform well tomorrow. But the question remains whether we are happy with what’s happened and how we are feeling. There is a system and we can’t work outside the system. Our minds are in one place but we will have to go and play elsewhere.”
Mortaza backed both the bowlers to come though from this setback, saying the entire team is behind them. “At the moment it’s very difficult to understand them and tell them that everything will be alright. All that we can wish and pray is they come out stronger and fight it out and come back and play for Bangladesh.”
Points table
Group 1
Teams P W L NRR pts
WI 2 2 0 +0.89 4
SA 2 1 1 +0.81 2
Sri Lanka 2 1 1 -0.17 2
England 2 1 1 -0.40 2
Group 2
Teams P W L NRR pts
NZ 2 2 0 +1.37 4
Pakistan 2 1 1 +0.99 2
India 2 1 1 -0.89 2
Australia 1 0 1 -0.40 0
B’desh 1 0 1 -2.75 0
Read as Played, Won, Lost, Net Run-Rate, Points.
Afghan 2 0 2 -1.24 0
