‘Not enough evidence against Santokie’
The Bangladesh Cricket Board’s (BCB’s) anti-corruption unit have not found anything against Sylhet Thunder’s West Indian pacer Krishmar Santokie, who was interrogated by the ACU for his suspicious wide and no-ball against Chattogram Challengers in the opening game of the Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League in Mirpur on November 11.
The 35-year-old left-arm seamer bowled a gigantic wide in his third delivery and two balls later bowled a huge no-ball in the second over of the innings which raised eyebrows in the cricket fraternity.
“Whenever there is any evident doubt, they (ACU) normally investigate the matter. The ACU may have not have gotten any conclusive evidence in this issue and it is the reason why the matter did not come to us. Following media reports, they (ACU) have investigated the matter but in this case, they did not have enough evidence. I think that was the case in this matter too,” BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury told the media yesterday.
Earlier in the day BCB’s media committee chairman Jalal Yunus said that the anti-corruption unit have interrogated Santokie and that the report had been sent to the board.
“Santokie was interrogated for a long period by ACU members and they were looking deeply into his track record. It’s not that the board is sitting idle without doing anything in this regard. They [ACU] had probably already provided their report to the board, although I am not sure about the decision that is placed in that report,’’ Yunus said.
Sylhet are currently placed sixth in the seven-team table, having lost six of their seven games, including the one against Khulna Tigers last night.
Earlier, Sylhet team director Tanjil Chowdhury was quoted by some media outlets as saying that he had requested the BCB to investigate Santokie’s wide and no-ball.
Tanjil was even quoted as saying that there was a lot of conflict between him and the team sponsors during the players draft and that he was not happy after the sponsors roped in Santokie, but later clarified in a social media post that there were no such issues.