'Instead of Mustafizur, had it been Litton Das or Soumya Sarkar, would they have done the same thing?' - asks Ex-BCB administrator

New Delhi: Former Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) general secretary and ex-Asian Cricket Council (ACC) CEO Syed Ashraful Haque has launched a scathing critique of political interference in cricket administration, calling the ongoing controversy involving Mustafizur Rahman and Bangladesh’s participation in the T20 World Cup “ridiculous” and “a parody”.

Speaking at length on the debate surrounding Bangladesh’s matches in India and the demand for a hybrid model, Haque said the sport across the subcontinent has been “hijacked by politicians” who neither understand cricket nor its wider implications.



“The whole cricket ecosystem in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, everywhere has been hijacked by politicians. Just think about it. Would this ever have happened if people like Mr Jagmohan Dalmia, Mr IS Bindra, Mr Madhavrao Scindia, Mr NKP Salve or even Mr N Srinivasan were in charge? This would never have happened because they were mature people. They understood the game and they understood the implications," Haque tells TimesofIndia.com from Kuala Lumpur.

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“Now it has been hijacked completely. You have people who have never held a bat. In your case, you have Jay Shah, who has never even held a cricket bat in a competitive match.”

He didn't hesitate from questioning the leadership in his country as well.

“We have the same thing here. The government is run by people who are not politicians, nor are they experienced in sports. Our sports advisor gives a statement that Bangladesh should not go to India. Think about it. This is a World Cup event. This is not the IPL. IPL is a domestic tournament. This is an international World Cup event. You cannot come out with rash statements like this.”

"Instead of Mustafizur, had it been Litton Das or Soumya Sarkar, would they have done the same thing? They wouldn’t.”

Calling the controversy politically motivated, Haque said, “It is all cheap religious sentiment that politicians are playing.”

Haque argued that solutions have existed in the past.

“This is a world event. You want all the countries in the world to play. It has happened in the past as well. Earlier, points were forfeited. Here, the tricky thing is Bangladesh is playing all matches in India. If they were playing half the matches in Sri Lanka or somewhere else, that would have sufficed.”

“We could give walkovers in two matches and play the others, like England did, like West Indies did. A lot of teams did that. But now the whole hybrid thing has been done because of security reasons.”

Haque described the current scenario as farcical. “If India threatens that Mustafizur is in the team, then he will be there. But our team is captained by Litton Das. Isn’t this a parody?”

The veteran administrator blamed election-driven politics for the impasse.

“It’s what happens when immature politicians take over. You have elections in West Bengal and Assam, so you play this political card to get votes. And you put an international event of World Cup stature into difficulty.”

Haque said shifting matches to Sri Lanka would solve the issue.

“If they can move it to Sri Lanka, it’s a win-win situation for everybody. If they can’t, I doubt whether Bangladesh will come to India to play this.”

Asked about the financial implications for Bangladesh, if the ICC doesn't listen to BCB's demand and Bangladesh government refuses to send the team to India.

“Maybe it will cost us financially. But national pride is much bigger than financial losses.”

Drawing a comparison with past crises, Haque recalled the aftermath of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, when he was at helm of ACC.

“You cannot compare India-Pakistan relations with India-Bangladesh. It’s very different. India and Bangladesh are like brothers. It’s very old. India came to play Test matches in Bangladesh. BCCI played a big role in helping us getting the Test status.”

He added, “The 2008 was much more delicate than this, and we got out of it. We got out of it because we had good, sane people as administrators of all three bodies.”

“Now we don’t have that. We have a sports advisor who has never held a cricket bat. He is a teacher and a revolutionary. What does he care about cricket? He is after publicity and he is there only for the next two months.”