Dhaka Gladiators skipper Mashrafee bin Murtaza said that he had completely forgotten about the recent spot-fixing issue once he entered the field against Khulna Royal Bengals in the Bangladesh Premier League on Saturday.
Mashrafee took Bangladesh cricket by a storm last week when he claimed that he was approached by an ex-national cricketer to provide him certain information in exchange of money.
Mashrafee already held talks with the ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit representative Howard Beer in Dhaka and is now readying himself to give his testimony before a four-member probe committee formed by the Bangladesh Cricket Board.
The development has completely overshadowed his return to the charge of a team with the Dhaka Gladiators in the BPL after a long injury lay-off that kept him out of competitive cricket for nearly nine months.
‘I am not thinking about all those things (spot-fixing issue). The game has started and I am concentrating on that now,’ Mashrafee told reporters at the post-match press briefing.
‘In my life I had already passed greater tests than this and it is not going to have any effect,’ said Mashrafee.
Mashrafee was rather interested in analysing Gladiators’ 19-run defeat to Khulna Royal Bengals in their tournament opener.
The 15-20 runs that Khulna scored, more than what they had expected, at the depth of their innings have made the difference between two sides, said the paceman.
‘They batted really well in this match, Sakib was playing too many shots and the wicket also looked very good on the occasion,’ said Mashrafee.
‘We gave away 15 to 20 runs in the last few overs, which ultimately cost us the game,’ he said.
The performance of the local cricketers is another factor which Mashrafee identified as a potential reason for their defeat.
‘I have always said this tournament will be dominated by foreign players. The team which will have their local players complementing the foreigners will win the game and this is what happened to Khulna,’ he said.
Sakib made highest 42 runs for Khulna while Nasir Hossain scored 22 off 12 balls to help them assemble a challenging total. Sakib and Nasir also took a wicket each to complement Andre Russell’s 4-35 to play their part in the win.
-With New Age input
