Dhaka – Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan Papon on Wednesday termed the victory of Bangladesh ODI captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza in Sunday’s national election as a ‘big achievement’.Nazmul, who was also elected as a parliament member from Kishoreganj-6 constituency, came up with the remarks while talking to reporters at his Beximco office.
Mashrafe won the election from Narail-2 parliamentary seat by a big margin as he got more than 96 percent of cast votes.
“It’s (Mashrafe’s win) a big thing. I think it’s the first instance of such an achievement in the history. I never heard someone to play in international cricket or lead a team after being elected a member of parliament. So, it’ll be something new and I’m excited about it,” the BCB chief said.
“You should remember that Mashrafe is very serious about his political future. He is not a man to think about his own gain. His lone focus is on the development of his constituency. But at the same time, he is focused on his cricket. There’s no doubt about it. His seriousness about the game is still here,” he added.
Nazmul also said he wants fair and flawless umpiring in the domestic cricket. “We’ve received a lot of allegations about erroneous umpiring in the domestic cricket in the last few years. But now, we want to take a stern stance against it.”
Some media reports suggested irregularities in the domestic cricket recently that revealed biased umpiring and forceful activities on the players to fix cricket match.
Nazmul said they will not tolerate this kind of wrongdoings in future. “We want to resolve the issues from the higher end, and that is umpiring. For the development of domestic cricket, we need to ensure quality umpiring in the domestic cricket, especially at the first, second and third divisional game.”
“But it’ll take time to resolve it. I’ll sit with umpires and club officials soon to discuss the issue,” the BCB president added.UNB
