I recalled Mehedi: Hassan

Bangladesh's tour of Sri Lanka has faced two controversies so far. The first one was the axing of senior batsman Mahmudullah Riyad from the Test squad for the historic 100th Test in Colombo. The second and less controversial episode was the calling up of the then-uncapped Mehedi Hasan Miraz for the ODI squad after the off-spinner had already travelled back to Bangladesh after the Tests to play in the Emerging Nations Cup.

On both occasions, Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan had said that the changes were his decision. On March 15, the first day of the Colombo Test, Hassan said it was his decision to drop Mahmudullah. And after two days of speculation about why Miraz was hurriedly sent back to Sri Lanka at the eleventh hour, during the innings break of the first ODI yesterday, Hassan said:  "I called up [chief selector Minhazul Abedin] Nannu to send over Miraz. I found out he is in Khulna, and told him that he must get back to Sri Lanka.

"Basically we wanted to keep him as an option because they have a number of quality left-handed batsmen. Miraz has been bowling well in the Tests and this is a very important series for us. But when I sat with the team this morning, it still wasn't decided if Miraz or Sanjamul [Islam] would be playing in the first ODI. It was finalised after they came to the ground."

Hassan also talked about the scheduling for Australia's planned tour of Bangladesh in August this year.

“They have wanted a time slot from us for some time now, but nothing specific has been finalised yet," said Hassan. "There is an Eid break in the middle [first week of September]; they don't want to sit for five days. They feel it is impossible. We said that we will start the match on the 4th, hoping that the Eid is held on the 1st or 3rd."