Mushfiqur Rahim yesterday blasted the organising capacity of the BPL after the fiasco over the semifinal opponents of Duronto Rajshahi emerged only few hours before the game.
The captain of the franchise that lost the first semifinal against Barisal Burners by eight wickets was understandably miffed but boldly criticised the overall mishap that has become the T20 tournament.
“The whole world saw how disorganised the tournament was,” said Mushfiqur Rahim at the end of the game. “Barisal were told they have to score the [151] runs in 16 overs [against Chittagong Kings on Sunday] and they progressed. Then it was said that Chittagong would go through. This is only possible in Bangladesh. I am not saying this just as a player, but as a human being as well. It is indeed a big shame.
“Till the evening we knew it was Barisal. Afterwards during the second game yesterday [Monday], we heard it is the Chittagong Kings who are going through. That’s what we knew when we went to sleep. After waking up, we find out it is Barisal. The league has been running like this. It is nothing impossible for us, so we didn’t take it in that way,” added Mushfiqur about the overnight fiasco surrounding the fourth semifinal spot.
The national captain also said that they didn’t receive the promised payment, around 75 per cent of contracted amount, before the tournament ended.
“Not just the local players, most of the foreign players also haven’t received any payment yet. And even if they have been paid, it has been very little.
“The commitment was to pay us 75 per cent of the contracted amount before the end of the tournament. But we haven’t received anything of that sort. We got some of the money but not the said amount,” he said.
He was also aware of the several controversies that could touch the young Bangladeshi cricketers who are playing in the tournament.
“Definitely there are good things to pick up from the foreign players, but also there are things that have been negative that is going on. Whoever can get out of this with cricket in their mind, will do good in the future,” he added.
Mushfiqur also warned that in the future, such issues with pending payments could deter top players from playing in domestic competitions of this nature.
-With The Daily Star input
