Two members of the Bangladesh squad were left mentally shattered after their exclusion from the ICC T20 World Cup, claimed Bangladesh’s assistant coach Mohammad Salahuddin.
He also hit out at the former Sports Advisor, Asif Nazrul, for misrepresenting facts and shifting his position regarding the national team’s participation. Salahuddin added that it was extremely difficult for the players to come to terms with their exclusion from the tournament.
During the whole fiasco, Nazrul, who served under Bangladesh’s former interim leader Muhammad Yunus, had initially maintained that the decision not to travel to India due to security concerns was taken by the government.
However, shortly before stepping down from his post, he stated that the call had been made by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and the players.
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“He told such blatant lies,” Salahuddin told reporters. “I am a teacher myself, and teachers generally lie a bit less. That he would say such lies so openly – I honestly can’t even imagine it. How will I even show my face in front of the boys? He took such a U-turn.”
Salahuddin suggested that the players had no role in the decision-making.
Bangladesh were replaced by Scotland in the tournament after they refused to travel to India for their games. The BCB had proposed relocating Bangladesh’s matches in India to co-hosts Sri Lanka, but the ICC rejected the request and opted to replace the team instead.
Devastated players
He also added that the players were devastated. “Look, when a boy goes to play in a World Cup, he carries his dream – his 27-year-old dream with him. You destroy that dream in one second,” said Salahuddin. “Fine, if it’s a country’s decision taken for national reasons, they will sacrifice for the country. But if you talk about loss, I will talk only about personal loss. Personally, you completely ended a boy’s dream. I know that two of my players went into coma mentally for five days, completely lost,” Mohammad Salahuddin added.
“For the sake of the country, I’m also ready to sacrifice many things, and the boys are ready too. But did I put my hand on a boy’s head and say, ‘Son, you couldn’t play because of this?’ If things had been communicated properly, I think many things could have been accepted,” he added.
