Scribe gets `a piece of Bangla mind’

Dhaka, June 3: Though the nerve centre of all the match-fixing tales is in India, in an unsavoury incident, an Indian reporter from Calcut...

Dhaka, June 3: Though the nerve centre of all the match-fixing tales is in India, in an unsavoury incident, an Indian reporter from Calcutta is being harassed by officials for having written that the India-Bangladesh Asia Cup match was `fixed.’

The reporter from Bengali paper Dainik Bartaman, wrote in his paper that “India allowed Bangladesh to make a huge score so that it would facilitate their entry into Test league.” Bangladesh’s case for becoming the 10th Test playing nation is to be decided at the ICC meeting in June. Most of the full ICC members are favourably inclined towards the entry of Bangladesh into the Test fold.

The reporter has been condemned by one and all with the Sports Minister, Obaidul Quader asking the former to either substantiate what he wrote, or publish an apology in his paper. “Failing so, Bangladesh government will initiate legal action against him and his paper,” the minister said.

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The incident took a turn for the worse on Thursday with the reporter, Ratul Ghosh, claiming “I was threatened and abused at the BCB office where I was called to give an explanation for what I had written.” One of the BCB officials, who was present when this incident took place, denied having threatened the reporter, though he did admit that the reporter was “given a piece of their mind.”

This is obviously a touchy affair for the Bangladeshis, for whom getting Test status is going to be a very proud moment of their sporting history. For anyone to allege `foul-play’ evokes a very strong reaction from the authorities. They feel very angry and even hurt whenever any one says that the 1999 World Cup match in which they beat Pakistan was `fixed.’

“The victory in the World Cup is our greatest sporting moment, but whenever someone says it was achieved through unfair means, it hurts,” is the common refrain of the people here.