Shahriar Nafees set to return

Shahriar Nafees is set to return to the Bangladesh A team for the four-day match against the West Indies' High Performance Centre side from September 22, after the Bangladesh Cricket Board's disciplinary committee lifted restrictions on his selection. The left-hand opener was sent home last month before the third and final four-day match in the Shafi Darashah competition in Bangalore after his reaction to an umpiring decision during the A team's second match.

He continued to show his frustration in the dressing-room and was later warned by the match referee. But the team management found the bad behaviour enough for the Bangladesh A captain to be jettisoned before the tour ended.

The selectors kept him out of a 19-member training team for the series against the Caribbean side and almost three weeks after the incident, Nafees was referred to the disciplinary committee that heard his account.

"The national selectors can select him, there's no longer any embargo on that," BCB's disciplinary committee chairman Sirajuddin Mohammad Alamgir said. "We have spoken to [Shahriar] Nafees and all members of the team management. We will put together our recommendations and submit it to the board president today."

After the hearing at the BCB headquarters in Mirpur, Nafees admitted it was an overreaction on his part, which he could have avoided at the time.

"I gave my version of the events to the disciplinary committee, so I hope the confusion regarding this matter goes away," Nafees said. "I could have behaved better, and if I had controlled myself, the situation wouldn't have escalated; had the dressing room been closed off to the public and not been so open, it wouldn't have created so much trouble."

"If I wasn't the captain, it wouldn't have looked so bad. My behaviour had an adverse effect on my team-mates, so I could have been a lot more responsible. If I had kept my cool, the incident wouldn't have stretched for a month," he said.

When he was sent back, some board officials pointed out to Nafees leading a dissension in the training camp in Khulna before they headed to India. It was a small group of players who had allegedly clashed with coach Stuart Barnes and trainer Tushar Kanti Howlader, but neither did the team management inform the board, nor punish anyone.

But Nafees believed that the incidence in Bangalore wasn't related to what took place during the camp in Khulna. "The two are separate incidents. We trained for two months (prior to the tour) and there wasn't anything wrong in the relation between players and management. I personally don't want to see the two incidents being related. Whatever has happened though is unfortunate," he said.