Dressing room damage: CCTV footage gives no indications

Sports Desk: The ground staff at R. Premadasa Stadium have reported to Match Referee Chris Broad that the CCTV footage doesn't give any indications as to who caused damage to the visitors' dressing room door during the tense last group game between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka on Friday night (March 16) in Colombo.

The ground management had been instructed by Broad to go through the video footage and report back to him. On Saturday morning, he was informed that CCTV cameras do not penetrate into the dressing room to find out exactly what took place.

There were eyewitnesses (dressing room attendants) who suggested that a senior Bangladeshi player had pushed the glass door forcefully causing the damage but the Match Referee refused to take a third party's version into account and wanted the venue officials to make the claim. Since none of the officials had seen the incident, they declined to name any player.

It was learnt that the incident happened immediately after the winning six was scored by Mahmudullah Riyad and not afterwards during the celebrations.

Friday's game was a virtual semi-final and needing 12 runs off the last over, the tourists won by two wickets off the penultimate ball of the game.

During the dramatic final over, there were ugly scenes as players argued with umpires and with each other. Officials are going through the footage of the last stages of the game to determine whether they could charge any player.

Isuru Udana's first ball of the last over to Mustafizur Rahman was a bouncer and there was an appeal for caught behind as well. Umpire Ravindra Wimalasiri turned down the appeal and Sri Lanka opted to review. Amidst the tension and drama, Wimalasiri failed to indicate 'one for the over'. Since the umpire had not signalled, Udana followed it up with another bouncer. As per ICC rules, only one bouncer per over is allowed.

Source: Cricbuzz

risingbd/Dhaka/March 17, 2018/A K Azad