The Dhaka High Court placed an injunction on the national team’s visit to Pakistan after a writ petition by a university teacher and a lawyer who stated security concerns as the reason for not touring the country. The turn of events followed the confirmation, made by the Bangladesh Cricket Board President Mustafa Kamal, that the team will tour Pakistan for a One-Day International and one Twenty20 at the end of this month.
It has been learnt that an ‘extremely’ unhappy PCB is following the case closely through its legal team and has obtained a copy of the petition where ‘loopholes’ prompted it to doubt the BCB’s role as it believes that it could have easily challenged the decision. The PCB, in a media statement yesterday, told one side of the story, asking the Bangladesh board ‘to submit the copy of the court order and copy of the appeal [if any] filed by the BCB against the stay order’.
The statement added, “After perusal of the writ by officials of the PCB assisted by legal adviser, prima facie the writ petition is devoid of merits and has been filed against public interest which will be detrimental to the game of cricket. The PCB is hopeful that the BCB will leave no stone unturned to get the stay order vacated.”
Doubts surround BCB’s true stance
On the other hand, several PCB officials doubt the deferral as a result of BCB’s self-designed campaign to cancel the tour.
“There are serious questions about the BCB’s role,” an official close to the matter told The Express Tribune. “There were many loopholes in the petition, including facts not told correctly to the court,” he said while referring to the petition which stated that the PCB failed to send a security report to the International Cricket Council (ICC) despite this not being the case. “The petition could have been easily defended by the BCB. The final order to postpone the tour for a month at an interim stage of the case also raises questions.
“The reason to ask for a copy of the appeal is to assess how badly does it want the tour to go ahead. At least by following the matter, we will know what kind of relations should be kept with the Bangladesh board in the future.”
He said the PCB will not hesitate in stopping players for the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL). The official added that the board might also consider its stance on supporting Kamal to the post of the ICC vice-presidency once things are cleared out.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 24th, 2012.
COMMENTS (27)
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@zshams my friend it does not matter what and who prepare wickets!
@ Z shams - Leisure time wishes were not for you but for the BD team who do not have much to do in upcoming days. Why not ask BCCI (ur real bosses) to provide a test series in India now. They did offer it when BCB was all set to visit to Pakistan and after that all the mess happened (as BCB found it financially and credentially more lucrative).
In your next comment I would look fwd to one single event as an example when PCB (in specific) or Pakistan (in general) insulted BCB / BD. Now don't get into 1971 mess as all of that was conspired by India (its a known fact claimed by Indra Gandhi you can google it) and faults on both sides (specially Miltary leaders of that time in West Pakistan).
@abbas: Yes my dear abbas: We are happy to find that Pakistanis are happy to find that South Africa has rejected Kamal's proposal of Bangladesh touring South Africa at BCB's expense. You know what Abbas, we in Bangladesh are also extremely happy. Kamal again took an unilateral decision to travel to South Africa or organise a tri-series in Dhaka involving South Africa, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh to prepare our team for the ensuing T20 Championship scheduled to be held in September (in Sri Lanka). It would have been a waste of tax payers' money for playing in bouncy and fast wicket of Durban would not have given our players the necessary practice to play in typical slow and low bounce subcontinental wicket of Sri lanka. It will be much better to practice in Mirpur wicket as our curator is from Sri Lanka and he is preparing wickets at Mirpur almost similar to Lankan wickets. As far as our standing in world cricket is concerned, we know that our standing is dismal, scoring only 67 points against the score of more than 120 by Pakistan. We have never said that we are at all comparable to ex World Champion Pakistan. All we object to is the tendency of Pakistani people in general and PCB in particular of insulting Bangladesh and Bangladesh cricket. And shall continue to object to that. We wish we were not with Pakistan in the ICC format. We could then request PCB to leave us alone and freeze all cricketing events with Pakistan cricket. Given the reality, we hope and pray that both BCB and PCB are lead by professional and sefless people so that our players are not taken on rides to meet BCB/PCB bosses' personal career ambitions in the ICC structure. Thanks for wishing me enjoying my leisure time. I do not write these comments to enjoy my lleisure. I consider this to be my duty to object to unethical works persued by our non professional and non transparent cricket bosses. This is within our democratic polity.
@Z Shams - Ya right whatever, Cricket South Africa response to your board should be a good indication of your standing as far as cricket is comncerned. Enjoy ur leisure time.
@ Z Shams you're totally confused and wrong in your hate against Pakistan and Pakistani people. How can you say that most BCB members were not aware of this tour when everybody else knew in the world. Let me tell you your prime minister left the stadium without meeting Pakistani players after the Asia cup final. On the other hand pakistan ex prime minister Nawaz Sharif had said after Pakistan's victory, he is happy that we won but had we lost this match it wouldn't hurt much means we still considered you as brothers. Leave sport clean of politics you might have some personal grudges against mr Kamal but that doesn't mean sport should stop.
Guys just stick to cricket and not politics or personal. The only disappointing thing is BCB went to Pakistan and checked all security arrangements and then a lecturer and a lawyer file a petition against the tour. BCB should have immediately responded to that petition and cleared the way for the tour. Have you never heard where there is a will there is a way. BCB were dishonest from start to finish with PCB. Regarding BPL and Pakistani players earning money without Pakistani players BPL would have been a flop. People like Imran Nazir, Abdul Razak, and Shahid Afridi can fill any ground with their presence not to mention other excellent Pakistan players. I believe coming T20 world cup match between Pakistan and Bangladesh in Sri Lanka will be a very big game. Chances are loser will go out of the world cup. Pakistan should invite Afghanistan and Zimbabwe for tri series. Ireland is a good bet too. Concentrate on domestic cricket and not run after BCB now.
@Ajmaal Usman: mashallah Pakistani's and Bangladeshi's should marry into each others family.
My dear Abbas. Most of the BCB members were not aware of this tour. It was essentially Kamal's baby and Zaka used him to meet his goal of bringing back international cricket to your country where ICC has barred Test playing nations to participate since the 2009 incidence of violance against the Sri Lankan players. We were also taken aback by the judgement of Dhaka High Court in restricting Bangladesh team's travel to Pakistan by four weeks. And was of the opinion that writ petition was probably not necessary when the tour was totally dependent on ICC's approval, which we thought was not forthcoming anyway. Given the response from PCB of our court decision, we are convinced now that the writ petitionaries have done the right thing. And we should not take any initiative to revive this tour for Pakistanis are very unkind towards Bangladesh and Bangladesh cricket. And PCB had the audacity of questioning our integrity and sincerity including our highrst court of justice. We are thankful to Allah that we could get rid of these kind of people having no sense of civility.
@ Ajmaal, I totally agree with you Bangladesh is a brotherly country and we need to interact with them more, our ignorance with them last 40 years turned them ignorant against us and its really bad, this is not tit for tat as its hurting us more.
Also mashallah your sister is married to a Muslim Bengali, alot of Pakistani girls Here in London are Married to Bangladeshi's mainly the Sylheti community from Bangladesh and trust me it works but how sad the two country's cannot work things out amicably.
More like BCB Bangladesh should question PCB Pakistan's integrity.
I am ashamed of our Authorities trying to correct Bangladesh a brotherly county, non Muslim countries are laughing at us trying to correct Bangladesh when they are right, a blast in Lahore proves the Muslim Bengalis are right we have alot to learn from them.
My sister is Married to a Bangladeshi and trust me we have learnt alot from him.
Pakistan Zindabad - Bangladesh Zindabad
Bangladesh was absolutely correct not coming to Pakistan.
A blast in Lahore -(
@Z Shams - You are bit confused between national politics and cricket and so is your board. Now taking further from your argument, wht u r indicating abt separation of BD and causes behind it, comes more from what u have learnt from the text books (not your fault ofcourse). Also had we hated Bengalis tht much as a nation we would not have kept more than 3 million (and many more of them who now left) illegaly for more than 30 years with us. Allowing them to live with us (not in camps the way Beharis live in BD) earn and save for their families back home. Don't be tht proud of some recent successes econmically. You are effectively land locked by India and dependent most of the time on them (including your main water sources). You know very well (though you would never accept) that India had its role in 1971 creating differences and hatered (as it is now trying to do in Baluchistan).
Coming back to cricket I hope u realise that playing BD team is not a cricketing gain for Pakistani team. What has hurt more is the high expectation from the BD board to help us in bad times the way we did with you in past. Anyway bad times never remain their for ever and we will be back soon inshAllah
that was not a favor, it was only a plan to make the their tournament successive t ,@z shams:
@z shams: that is the fault of your board and it's negligence.just in the start of BPL a news of fixing to a bangoli player by another was came out.
@z shams: quite unaware from the facts.it was schedule under the ICC's future tour program,Mr Kamal and his team was very happy while watching the security plans what happen with him just after taking off from Lahore.and BPL is nothing without our Pakistani players.
If they'r not interested in playing cricket with you, then accept it and move on ! Not that what theyr saying isnt true - obviously Pakistan has a security problem - they realize this and dont wanna come - So what ! MOVE ON. The manner of expressing the desire of not playing does at first seem to be wrong i.e. through the injunction by the court but if closely looked at, its atleast better than saying publicly that we dont wanna play in Pakistan because its unsafe to do. So yea, Move on - dont take it as a shock PCB
lol BPL without Pakistani players will be doomed ..These Bangalis are just too immature to understand cricket (how it works) yet.
@ z shams We hope tha BCB will not do this FAVOUR in next season so that shine of BPL will also not exist. You are living in fool's paradise as without Pakistan players, BPL can only attract only few retired players.
I am Indian but I agree with others that BPL success in next seasons will largely depend on availability of pakistani players as indian players will never take part in BPL due to our highly successful domestic tournament IPL. It is also difficult to attract good players outside Asia in BPL. I guess BPL will no longer exist after two years maximum.
@Z Shams We will definitely see in next season that how 'many players from other countries make BPL succesful." You and your cricket board also know that only Pakistani players will make BPL successfull and event will be failure if PCB stops their players.
@khan: My dear Khan. BCB has done a favour to Pakistani by inviting Pakistani players to play in the BPL and paying them handsomely. They were also treated very well knowing very well their background of fixing games. In fact, many of us did not like participation of some very controversial and arrogant players including Shoaib.
@z shams your players can not lose more to Pakistan, so this stupid move. It's not easy losing forever against Pakistan and despite all help, losing again. This not about security, this is about not losing more. That bein said, the series at this time is not a good idea.
Zaka needs to focus on thriving domestic team that inviting kids from Bangladesh that willie rolled over easily.
No need to have intl cricket at this time in Pakistan, we are just not ready.
@z shams: since when cancelling a preplanned tour for no specific reason become a favour...do you know the loses PCB will suffer due to this..if they didnt wanted to come they should have said no much longer..
what i dont understand is where is the favour you are talking about.BCB integrity as seen by whole world when they contested for Asian cup 5 runs..this shameful event has never occurred in 200 years of cricket history!
This attitude of PCB is not acceptable. Kamal has ventured into this controversial project just to meet his selfish end. Yes. We are not happy with the members of the BCB for their non pro active role in developing cricket culture and development works, but PCB has no right to question the integrity of BCB. PCB should also realize that their cricketers have earned huge amount of money in foreign exchange which they have not earned in the last five years. If they refrain them from participating in the BPL, there are many others from other countries who will participate to make BPL functional. Bangladesh has done a favour to Pakistan for which the players should remain grateful. We think PCB people have forgotten that Bangladesh is a democratic country and writ petition is a right of every citizen of Bangladesh. From the media reports, we have come to learn that the writ had been moved on the plea of a few players' concern for their life, not based on appeal from any BCB personnel. Kamal by this time must have realized that PCB cannot be trusted and he was taken on a ride. And PCB is now taking his country on aride. We thought the present day Pakistan has changed compared to Pakistan of 1947-1971 era. We are wrong. They have remained as snobbish and autocratic as before. No wonder our players cannot trust Pakistanis and their establishment.
Still love Bangladesh, done blame the people.
From the outset, i had no doubt that the BCB was never interested in playing in Pakistan. It should have been clear to PCB that under the current political dispensation in Dhaka which is extremely anti Pakistan and openly Indian backed, that this series was a non-starter. PCB should now take this snub and deception seriously and freeze cricket relations with Bangladesh. We have doled out enough favours to them.