Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hasan took a swipe at his predecessor AHM Mustafa Kamal for denying the fact that the country had made an unconditional commitment to tour Pakistan.
Kamal recently said he made a commitment about the Pakistan tour but it was not unconditional as has been described by Nazmul in the media.
‘I don’t say anything without confirming and knowing the fact,’ Nazmul told reporters on Saturday. ‘I have all the proof. On April 12, a first letter was sent from the BCB that said we were going there to play, but that tour didn’t happen due to a court ruling.’
‘The second letter was sent by the BCB on October 8 where a timeline was also given between December 12 and 20, to which we later replied “we can’t go in December”.
‘Both these letters were sent during his [Kamal’s] time. The directors told me they didn’t know anything about the letter. So when the letter from the board was sent, our CEO made all the communications. He told me that it was Kamal bhai who asked him to send the letters,’ said Nazmul.
The BCB president, who returned from Singapore this week after attending an Asian Cricket Council meeting, said he has all the proof regarding making the ‘unconditional’ commitment.
‘At the April 15 ICC meeting, it was written in the minutes that Bangladesh would go to play in Pakistan, and they would still go even if the ICC doesn’t send match officials,’ he said.
‘We cannot cancel the tour, we have to go. I don’t know if there can be anymore difficult conditions for touring. I also saw that only Mr Mustafa Kamal was present from Bangladesh in that meeting.’
Nazmul added that they will now seek a clarification from the ICC regarding this matter.
‘If the minutes of the ICC meeting are challenged by the ICC vice-president himself, we would like to seek a clarification on this issue,’ he said.
‘We would also ask them why such a thing was written in the minutes when the ICC vice-president himself is saying such a thing was not discussed.’
-With New Age input
