It’s affecting us, Bangla Test captain Shanto on T20WC impasse

Bangladesh Test skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto says the uncertainty surrounding his team’s participation in next month’s T20 World Cup in India is affecting the players’ psychological well-being but they are “acting” as if “everything is ok”. Shanto also lambasted Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) Director M Najmul Islam for calling former captain Tamim Iqbal an agent of India after Iqbal urged for a restrained and pragmatic approach to resolve the current impasse.

Bangladesh’s involvement in the showpiece has been clouded by controversy after the BCB asked the ICC to move the team’s matches out of India citing security concerns. “First of all, if you look at our World Cup results, we’ve never really played consistently good cricket. Last year, we did play well, but there were even better opportunities, and we couldn’t capitalise on them.

“But you’ll see that something always happens before every World Cup. I can say this from my experience of three World Cups — it does have an effect,” Shanto told reporters on Friday.“Now, we act as if nothing affects us, that we are fully professional cricketers. You guys also understand that we are acting — it’s not easy,” he added. Shanto said the players try to keep these distractions aside and perform for the team.

“Of course, it would be better if these things didn’t happen, but this is partly beyond our control,” he said. The World Cup gets underway on February 7 and Bangladesh are scheduled to play four games (three in Kolkata and one in Mumbai) in India. They demanded that these matches be moved to Sri Lanka after Bangladesh  pacer Mustafizur Rahman was released from the IPL on instructions of the BCCI, which cited unspecified “developments all around” to justify the decision.

“I don’t know the details of how it happened, or how it could have been controlled. Still, I’d say that even acting in such circumstances (is difficult),” Shanto said.“With the right mindset if we go to the World Cup and play anywhere, we should focus on how to do our best for the team,” he said. BCB director’s comment of Tamim sad: Shanto also expressed deep anguish over BCB director M Najmul Islam calling former captain Tamim Iqbal “an Indian agent”.

“Very sad, very sad because such comments were made about a cricketer — a former captain, and in my opinion one of Bangladesh’s most successful cricketers whom we grew up watching,” said Shanto.

“As players, we expect respect - whether someone is a former captain, a regular player, successful or not. At the end of the day, a cricketer hopes for respect,” he said. Shanto the BCB is “is supposed to be our guardian” but ended up making an unacceptable statement.  “Parents should correct you at home, not in front of everyone. So such a comment from someone who is supposed to be our guardian is very difficult to accept. I completely reject it as a player,” he concluded.