Umpires blamed as East Zone and Central Zone play out a draw
Mohammad Ashraful
||CF Correspondent||
In a bizarre turn of events, the Bangladesh Cricket League match between Islami Bank East Zone and Walton Central Zone ended in a draw at Bogura.
A low-scoring first innings in the match saw East Zone earn a 68-run lead in the first innings after bundling out the opponents for 118. Central Zone fought back well in the second innings, setting up a 326-run total for East Zone.
Starting the final day’s play at 71/2, East Zone were 240/3 at tea thanks to a century (135) from Mahmudul Islam, coupled with another 64-run innings from Mohammad Ashraful. They lost four more wickets for the next 57 runs.
With the match in a crunch situation, the two sides then allegedly started wasting time. Only 19.2 overs were bowled in the final session, before the umpire called it a day due to bad light. East Zone finished at 326/7, as the match ended in a stalemate.
“The opposition slowed down their over-rate to save the match. But the umpires should have worked strongly in the field. They bowled only 73 overs in the day whereas they should have bowl 90 overs. I think umpires should have worked more professionally,” Ashraful told Cricfrenzy.
Central Zone manager Milton Ahmed also blamed the umpires for the controversy.
“We asked the umpires to check the light as our wicketkeeper, fielders were not able to see the balls. They played till 5:07pm which was quite unusual in this part of the country,” Milton said.
“Why should we play in bad lights? I think if there is such umpiring we can’t say anything,” he added.
Match referee Belayet Hossain talked in favor of the umpires, putting the blame on the teams.
“Both the teams wasted so much times in the field, forcing the match to a late finish. It was the right time when the umpire stopped the play as there was problem with the light,” Belayet said.
