ACC rejects complaint of final-over collision

The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) has rejected a complaint by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) that the Pakistan fast bowler Aizaz Cheema deliberately collided with the batsman Mahmudullah in the final over of the Asia Cup final in Mirpur on Thursday. The ACC chief Syed Ashraful Haq said it was turned down on the grounds that the incident was not formally reported by the on-field umpires.

"We had received Bangladesh's complaint but since the incident was not reported by the on-field umpires nothing can be done," Haq told AFP.

The BCB had said it had seen video footage of the incident and would file the complaint to the ICC as well, but Haq said there was no question of taking it further.

"It could have happened then and there, but since the umpires and the match-referee did not take any action then, the matter is closed," said Haq.

"I think the Bangladesh team played so well in the whole tournament. Beating India and Sri Lanka - the World Cup 2011 finalists - was no mean achievement and although they lost the final, the Bangladesh team won millions of hearts."

The incident happened during the first ball of the 50th over, when Mahmudullah tried to come back for a second run but collided with Cheema. The rules of cricket (Law 42.5) sanction a strict penalty for the fielding team if a fielder is found by the umpire to deliberately obstruct a batsman while attempting a run. Neither batsman can be dismissed (if a run-out has taken place), five penalty runs are awarded to the batting side, the delivery will not count as one in the over, the run will count even if the batsmen haven't crossed and the batsmen can choose which of them faces the next delivery.

Whether or not there was intent behind the collision is for the umpire to determine; in this case, after the players had collided, the umpire Steve Davis was seen having a word with both players. The delivery yielded a single, and in the end, Bangladesh lost by two runs.