*DUBAI* – After Pakistani skipper, now Bangladesh Captain has also raisedconcerns over controversial Indian move in the Asia Cup.
Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza is angered at the move. His grouseswere two-fold: that Bangladesh, if they topped their group followingThursday’s match, would not have the advantage of playing the second-placedteam from the other group in their opening Super Four match on Friday; andthat their two matches on consecutive days would be in two differentcities, Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Until Wednesday, oddly, only India had been designated a label – A1 – inthe tournament handbook. No other team, in the handbook at least, hadlabels assigned to them. All the handbook specified was that A1 and B1would play B2 and A2 respectively on the opening day of the Super Fours.
It was assumed accordingly that teams from Group B would slot in as B1 orB2 based on where they finished in the first round of matches. However, onWednesday it was learnt that this is not the case. Instead, it was learnt,Bangladesh were labelled B2 ahead of the tournament and would remain B2irrespective of where they finished on the Group B table. This meantBangladesh would play India on Friday, with Pakistan squaring off againstAfghanistan.
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All this confusion, it is understood, stems from the BCCI having “erredwhile documenting the official tournament handbook”. The Indian board,which is the official host of this edition of the Asia Cup, admitted to anerror of omission in not mentioning that Bangladesh were B2 and so on.Consent was apparently sought from the chief executives of all the sixparticipating boards before finalising the schedule.
