Twelve let CWAB down

With the country's national cricketers refusing to play, Bangladesh Cricket Board(BCB) went on a face-saving mission and managed to field a team comprising of little known inexperienced First Division players for the four-day game against the visiting MCC yesterday.

The national cricketers, under the flag of their organisation Cricketers Welfare Association of Bangladesh (CWAB), boycotted the match on Monday in protest of the date-shifting of the inter-club cricketers transfers by the Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metropolitan (CCDM).

The substitute team, which was named Dhaka Metropolitan Eleven, had all but one First Division player. Paceman Ashfaque Ali, who played for Mohammedan Sporting Club last season, was the lone player from the Premier Division.

Although, none of the 39 cricketers, selected by the BCB, appeared at the board office during the scheduled 3pm reporting time on Monday, eight of them--Mahfuzur Rahman (Uttara SC), Jashimuddin (Eskaton SS), Salauhddin Ahmed (Orient SC), Zahiruddin (Uttara SC), Shaheen Ahmed (Lalmatia), Ashfaque Ali (Mohammedan SC) and Rezaul Karim (Young Cricketers) and Mohammad Lal (Khelaghar) some time later, surprisingly decided to serve the board's interest.

Apart from the eight, the other four in the 12 man squad were: Raju Parvez of Lalmatia Club, Ashrique Hossain of Dhaka Wanderers, Nadim Ahmed of Bangladesh Boys and Aslam Ali Khan of Lamatia Club.

BCB acting General Secretary Mahmud Ul Haq Manu said that the board was going to issue show cause notices to the 31 cricketers who did not report.

"The show cause notice would be served to them by tomorrow," said Manu yesterday evening.

Manu, however, did not elaborate what action the BCB was going to take against those players.

Meanwhile, a large section of the rebel cricketers, came to the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday and witnessed the four-day match for a couple of hours.

The players sat at the Club house enclosure and witnessed the whole of the first session of Day One.

CWAB President Minhazul Abedin, General Secretary Faruque Ahmed, national skipper Aminul Islam, were present among the prominent cricketers.

Talking to the reporters, Faruque Ahmed said that they were still un-decided about their future course.

Replying to another query, Faruque revealed that all the 12 cricketers who were in the four-day squad against the MCC, were members of the CWAB.

When asked whether the CWAB plans to take any action against those cricketers who have betrayed the organisation, Faruque said that they havent' thought about that yet.

"At the moment, we are much too engrossed with solving our main problem--the transfers. Let the whole uncertainty be resolved first. Then we may shift our attention to the defaulters", Faruque said.

The questionable conduct of those 12 players was the main topic of discussion among the journalists and fans present at the stadium. There were unconfirmed reports of them being kept captive by the BCB on Monday night. One of the players had apparently confessed that he was pressured into playing following a threat on his career. An opening bowler broke into tears when some pressmen asked why he had played. The player in question did not answer, clearly out of fear.