The Bangladesh Cricket Board on Saturday imposed a life-long ban on its commercial partner Rizwan bin Faruqe for manhandling an official during the Asia Cup final in March.
BCB vice-president AZM Nasir announced the punishment after a meeting of the disciplinary committee in the afternoon.
Rizwan is under contract with the BCB as a commercial partner until June 2016.
He is also a co-owner of Bangladesh Premier League franchise Barisal Bulls.
Rizwan had acted as the local agent of Asia Cup sponsor Twentyfirst Century Media.
The BCB had filed a general diary with the Mirpur Police Station in Dhaka on January 29, accusing Rizwan and two other individuals for hatching a conspiracy against the tournament.
Rizwan blamed Mainul Islam, the proprietor of Total Sports Marketing, a broadcast partner of BCB, for influencing the board to file the diary against him.
He publicly shoved Mainul during the prize distribution ceremony of the Asia Cup final, an incident that was witnessed by most of the BCB high-ups.
‘As the incident hampered the image of the country we decided to take a stern step and make him persona non grata for life,’ Nasir told reporters at Mirpur.
‘He cannot be involved with anything related with BCB and he also cannot be involved with any kind of franchise.
‘We had taken the decision on the back of evidence provided by the eye witness.
‘As he cannot get involved with any kind of activities with BCB, we will take legal advice to sort out things that needs to be done,’ he added.
When contracted Mainul refused to make any comment.
Rizwan said he was unaware of BCB’s disciplinary proceedings against him and waiting for the BCB president Nazmul Hasan to arrive from abroad.
‘Firstly I came to know about it from the media.
‘I am trying to call them [BCB] but they are not receiving my phone calls.
‘It is a bad intention of a particular business group,’ he said.
Rizwan added that he was shocked to know about the entire episode as he was not called in any kind of hearing to avail the opportunity of a self-defense.
‘I was not called in any kind of hearing to have the chance of clear my stance in this regard,’ he said.
‘I am waiting for the BCB president to arrive from abroad before taking a decision about it.’
BCB also took two other decisions as ban on former national cricketer Shahadat Hossain’s was upheld and a ban on former national skipper Roquibul Hasan was uplifted.
BCB took the decision that Shahadat will not be allowed to participate in the forthcoming Dhaka Premier League until he is cleared by the court.
Shahadat, a suspended national team cricketer, is currently on bail in a case filed against him and his wife for torturing their domestic help.
The right-arm fast bowler recently pleaded to the board to grant him with a chance of participating in the DPL and provided a document that suggests court have no problem in this regard.
However, BCB is not convinced with it and opted to wait until a specific decision is provided by the court about him.
‘As the case is still pending in the court, we decided not to allow him in DPL,’ said Nasir.
‘We can take a decision on him only after he is cleared from the case.’
Meanwhile, BCB decided to withdraw their provisional suspension against Roquibul.
The provisional suspension imposed on December 20 by the umpires committee of BCB barred Roquibul from getting involved in any kind of cricketing activities following his verbal tirade against officials.
The former national captain was seen making some derogatory remarks against BCB officials in a video footage that was broadcast on a local television channel.
Roquibul, currently a match referee regretted for his behaviour to get out of the hot water.
‘We had considered his contribution to the game and decided to lift the suspension,’ said Nasir.
Source: New Age
