'No point in playing like this'

There has been a lot of criticism of allegedly biased umpiring and corruption in the first and third division of the country's domestic cricket, leading to Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan announcing recently that the board would take strict action.

However, the picture has not changed as allegations continue to be made in the ongoing second division cricket league, with a club actually refusing to continue playing yesterday.

In protest of allegedly biased umpiring, Dhanmondi Progoti Sangha refused to play their game against Azim Cricket Club at BKSP-3 ground yesterday.

The incident took place during Progoti Sangha chase of a 207-run target and, according to the Progoti club officials, the umpires gave three wrong leg-before decisions against their batsman, one of whom was given out despite the ball being well above waist height during impact.

Struggling on 30 for four inside nine overs, Progoti officials eventually decided to call the players off the field in protest against what they saw as biased umpiring, alleging the two on-field umpires Shah Alam and Saidur Rahman of favouritism.

"During the previous meeting between club officials, BCB CEO [Nizamuddin Chowdhury] and the president, had announced that they will take a zero-tolerance stance against biased and poor umpiring in the lower leagues. However, things have not changed and we have seen favouritism in the second division leagues continuously. Umpires are giving leg-before decisions even if the ball hits the batsman's waist. There is no point playing like this.

"That is the reason we have refused to continue playing today [Sunday] to let the BCB president know that the image of Bangladesh cricket is being tarnished due to some people and everyone should know about this. The match referee said that we refused to play and announced Azim Club as the winner of the game. But we have nothing to do," Riazuddin Ahmed Raju, the team manager of Dhanmondi Progoti Sangha, told The Daily Star yesterday.

According to Alamgir Hossain, the coordinator of the second division league committee of Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metroplis (CCDM), the CCDM are aware of Progoti Sangha's allegations and refusal to play. He informed that the umpires committee and the match referee will file report about the matter later.

It was not the first time in the ongoing second division league that allegations of biased umpiring have been made. Recently, there were accusations that Purbachol Sporting Club were favoured by the umpires against Amber Sporting Club on January 15.

Despite there being mention of biased and poor umpiring in the captain's report, according to the club's officials, there was no action taken.