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Ashraf comes down hard

Sports Reporter
Gazi Ashraf Hossain defended his right of opinion and reacted strongly to comments made by Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful as the fallout of Bangladesh’s disastrous ICC World T\venty20 Cup campaign continued on Friday.
The former national skipper had launched a broadside on the current captain after Bangladesh had sensationally crashed out in the first round following a loss to Ireland.
However Ashraful hit back on Thursday amid reports of unrest in the Tigers camp and murmuring of calls for Gazi Ashraf to publicly apologise for his comments.
But the Bangladesh Cricket Board Director was having none of it while speaking to The Daily Star yesterday.
"1 must say 1 was quite surprised to read [in the newspapers] about the players' reaction to my comments, ’ he said.
"There is nothing that prevents me from speaking my mind. And you are compelled to say something when even after such a shoddy performance a captain can come in and say that he is comfortable with his performance and happy with his team's showing.
"This is really an alarming precedent."
Ashraf explained that his comments were made not as a member of the BCB but as an ex-captain and one who had to answer to a lot of people following the humbling by associate nation Ireland.
"My comments were made entirely as an ex-captain speaking out to another But being a member of the BCB does not mean that 1 cannot give my opinion on an issue that 1 am also part of. I have been elected to this position and no one has made me sign a bond saving that I would not be able to share myopinions.
"No one can claim cricket for themselves. It is a national property and we are all linked to in some fashion or another. The issue (of the failure in the WC| has even been raised in the parliament. So no one is actually in the comfort zone. Therefore I am completely warranted to comment on something that 1 know is going totally awry."
Gazi Ashraf said that he had been deeply disturbed by the Tigers' showing in England.
"Before the World T20, I made a brief presentation infront of a number of other directors about our goals for the tournament, which was to
beat Ireland and move into the Super Eight's. We did not manage to complete a single one.
"There is no use talking about our perfonnances in the practice games when we failed miserably in the tournament proper. It is the same as failing the core subject and passing the subsidiary ones. You really have nothing to show for it at the end.
"This is the easiest group we have had in recent memory and our progress should have been a formality." said a fuming Ashraf.
"These are the sort of perfonnances that lead high-ups like the ICC President [David Morgan] to question our Test status/he continued.
As regards the players reported displeasure at his comments, Ashraf pointed out that the BCB would come down strongly if die purported incidents were true.
"No one, be they a player or a member of the Board, is beyond the code of conduct and if the players have indeed voiced their displeasure in the suggested manner, cricket operations will deal with it accordingly," said Ashraf.