Dhaka: Imagine a bowler conceding 92 runs in just four balls. Seems unbelievable doesn’t it? But Sujon Mahmud from Lalmatia Club did exactly that last month. Mahmud deliberately lost a match by conceding 92 runs in four legal deliveries in protest of poor umpiring decisions. But the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) authorities didn’t take his actions lightly and imposed a 10-year ban on the bowler on Tuesday. Mahmud was found guilty of bringing the game into disrepute while Lalmatia Club was barred indefinitely from competition, with their coach, captain and manager punished with five-year bans from the Dhaka Second Division League.
Batsmen can score off such illegal deliveries but they do not count as part of a bowler’s regular six-ball over. Axiom opener Mustafizur Rahman smashed three fours off Sujon’s four legitimate balls to take his side home in just 0.4 overs in Dhaka.
The cricket board also imposed a ten-year ban on another bowler, Tasnim Hasan, and blacklisted his club Fear Fighters after they threw a separate match in similar fashion.
“We have found in our investigations that the bowlers bowled wides and no-balls deliberately to damage the image of our cricket,” the board’s disciplinary committee chief Sheikh Sohel told a press briefing.
Lalmatia Club secretary Adnan Rahman had admitted Mahmud bowled the wides and no-balls as a protest against poor umpiring. The secretary alleged the umpires did not even allow his team captain to see the coin after the toss.
The BCB also suspended for six months the umpires overseeing both the discredited matches.
