'We expect BCB to fight our cause'

Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza has attended many a press briefing before. But none of them would have been as emotional as the latest one at the conference room of the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore yesterday afternoon.

Mashrafe was so engrossed and overwhelmed that he was seen wiping his teary eyes moments after the briefing meant for Bangladesh's crucial ICC World T20 match against Australia but dominated by his thoughts on the suspension of his two bowlers -- pacer Taskin Ahmed and left-arm spinner Arafat Sunny.

A Tiger at heart, Mashrafe has perhaps endured worse adversities in his long stop-start career dominated by injury, but on Sunday he was battling for the cause of 'proper justice' of his serious understudy Taskin whom he believed would serve the nation 'for another ten years'.

Confronted with a series of questions of how they were recuperating from the loss of their two performing bowlers, the Bangladesh skipper was more focused on the pain they were enduring than on today's match against Australia.

“Obviously it's a big blow. Two of our main bowlers are out of the team but we will have to go through the process and we will have to play hard.”

Asked how confused, disappointed, angry they are and what the team were going through after that decision, Mashrafe could barely keep his emotions in check while accepting the ruling against Sunny but questioning the one against Taskin. 

“Taskin and Sunny are very disappointed. Obviously, the whole team is behind them. At the moment it is very difficult to understand what they are going through but the players and the coaching staff are trying to help them out. We can only wish and pray that they will fight it out and come back and play for the team again,” said a despondent Mashrafe.

But when a similar type of question was asked in Bangla afterwards, he simply gave it everything.

“You people will not understand how we have spent our last 24 hours with Taskin and Sunny. It's really hurting us,” he said acidly, adding that it was a devastating blow for the team at an extremely crucial juncture in such a big tournament.

“We are very upset with the decision, that's for sure. We feel that Taskin is alright. I don't know the system but we will have to go through the system,” said the Bangladesh captain while expressing his surprise at the manner Taskin's issue was handled.

“The match in question where the umpires felt that Taskin had bowled illegal deliveries and the test that has been conducted [on March 14] on him matching those deliveries, there was not a single delivery that was [proved] illegal. Now the point is that if the deliveries [he] bowled in that match are not illegal [in the test], then the question is how I will judge him? Now, in the test a few deliveries he bowled, which were bouncers, they find it violated the 15-degree limit. The question is will you judge him for those deliveries [three out of nine bouncers he bowled in the test] he did not bowl in the game or go by what he bowled in that match?

“I have said before Taskin is all right for us and we will expect the board [Bangladesh Cricket Board] to fight for our cause. Besides, I believe the ICC [International Cricket Council] always encourages young players; Taskin is only 20 years old and I hope he gets proper justice,” Mashrafe said when asked if he wants his home board to take the case to the apex body.

He said Taskin has been phenomenal for his team for the last eight games and Sunny has been very impressive, adding that it would not be possible for those who have come in as replacements to contribute that much. He also said that he did not want to put extra pressure on the two just-arrived players -- left-arm spinner Saqlain Sajib and off-spinning all-rounder Shuvagoto Hom.

“Firstly, we will go to the field to win a game no matter who the opposition is. However there is one thing -- for example, if two of your sons have some problem and you want to do something you will not be able to do that with the same enthusiasm that you normally would have. This is the situation of the team at the moment. We are not in a good state mentally at the moment which is of course understandable. But we will get to the field with the same spirit that we had in our last game,” said the utterly disappointed Mashrafe.