Afghan opener Mohammad Shahzad, who is playing for Minister Group Dhaka in the ongoing Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), is found to have breached the players’ code on Friday.
He was found to smoke an e-cigarette in the field when his team was waiting for the weather’s permission to play their Friday’s match against Comilla Victorians.
When the rain stopped Shahzad, along with other players, came out of the dressing room to see the field and brought an e-cigarette and started smoking in the field— which is a clear violation of the players’ conduct in BPL.
Dhaka’s opener Tamim Iqbal and coaching staff member Mizanur Rahman were seen to restrain Shahzad from smoking but the wicketkeeper batter was seen to be reluctant. But in the end, he refrained from smoking.
According to the players’ code of conduct, no player is allowed to carry any substance that is used for smoking.
“This sort of incident is a clear violation of the players’ code of conduct,” said Rakibul Hasan, the chief match referee of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and the convenor of the technical committee of BPL.
He said smoking is strictly prohibited in the cricket field and not acceptable in any way.
Shahzad was unavailable for a comment on the incident.
Meanwhile, the first match of the day which was set to be played between Sylhet Sunrisers and Fortune Barishal was abandoned due to bad weather.
The second match, scheduled to start at 6:30 pm, is due to begin at around 8 pm.
Source: United News of Bangladesh