BPL governing council to launch investigation into Miraz captaincy row

Sheikh Sohel, the chairman of the BPL governing council, has said that they will investigate the captaincy row between Mehidy Hasan Miraz and the Chattogram Challengers' officials. Miraz nearly left the team on Sunday afternoon after he was removed as captain on the previous day, just hours before their match.

Sohel, speaking during a press briefing in Dhaka, said that both parties didn't act professionally when dealing with the situation and should have shown more patience.

"When (Ismail Haider) Mallick bhai, CEO (Nizamuddin Chowdhury) and I discussed the matter after hearing of it yesterday, we felt both (Mehidy Hasan) Miraz and the (Chattogram Challengers') management were at fault," Sohel said.

"Miraz, being a top player from the national team, shouldn't have done this during the tournament. He should have waited, since we are in the disciplinary committee. The franchise also caused a problem. They should have been more patient. They could have discussed the matter among themselves. This shouldn't have become such a big incident. We will also not let them go. We will do a hearing shortly. We will ask both parties to attend it."

Mallick, the member-secretary of the governing council, said that they are not going too deep into the incident but they have the mechanism in place to investigate further into anything nefarious.

"We are yet to observe anything suspicious," he said. "What we have seen through the press conference is that there was a miscommunication. We will call them for a hearing and will try to know the entire matter.

"Not only this but BCB's anti-corruption team closely follows every game. We have one person from the anti-corruption unit with each team and they are monitoring closely. Not only BCB, the ICC is also following everything properly."

Mallick said that the conflict should have been resolved behind closed doors.

"The incident took place yesterday [Sunday] as Miraz, as a captain, said he wanted to open the innings in every game. Every franchise wants to win matches and they have a particular plan but obviously, this should have been handled professionally.

"Since he wanted to open the innings, this should have been discussed by the entire team management. But what happened was not expected as the way he was removed from the captaincy and how Miraz broke the bio-bubble and gave a statement to the media was unexpected."