President-cum-selector

An over-enthusiastic Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hassan Papon (R) reads out the 15-man Bangladesh World Cup squad, pushing his chief selector Faruque Ahmed (L) on the sideline during a crowded press briefing at the BCB headquarters in Mirpur on Sunday.

An over-enthusiastic Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hassan Papon (R) reads out the 15-man Bangladesh World Cup squad, pushing his chief selector Faruque Ahmed (L) on the sideline during a crowded press briefing at the BCB headquarters in Mirpur on Sunday.

Faruque Ahmed was all set to make a small piece of history on Sunday by becoming the only Bangladesh chief selector to announce two World Cup squads. But with a poker face the former Bangladesh captain, who is well-known for his gutsy approach, sat on the dais at the press conference room of the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur and witnessed a drama.

The all powerful Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan Papon read out the names of the 15-member final squad for the ICC World Cup.

Papon was not ready to finish with just the announcement. He further tried to expand by stating his technical knowledge on the selection issue, even though the person he hired to handle those issues (Faruque) was right there beside him.

That the BCB boss loves to talk about the technical aspects of the players is well known but what he did on Sunday was beyond anybody's imagination.

It's not like he broke the law. The constitution gives him absolute power to deal with any matter related to the board. There is however a norm in the gentleman's game that has been practised for years by every professional board.

The BCB itself has a committee with the technical persons to form the team and the general practice is that the board president approves the selections. As Faruque put it during the press conference, there is nothing wrong with the board asking the selectors about the selection of the team. If the president believes that the Faruque and company don't have the ability to form the team then he can be relieved of the job. But the way the discussions were made public was not the right way to go about it.

In a last-minute drama, the board delayed the announcement of the team by more than two hours. To everyone's surprise Papon himself revealed that the last minute discussion was regarding two bowling spots. He said that since a lot of the board directors, coach Chandika Hathurusingha and captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza were present in Mirpur, he wanted to know their opinions. In addition the BCB president further embarrassed the selection committee by stating that the panel virtually could not decide on a 15-member team and that they had submitted a 16-member side.

Firstly, the board's interference on such technical issues is an extremely odd practice; and even if there was a question of discussion, it could have been done internally, well before the announcement of the team rather than it being made public.

At the end of the press conference the question dominated the rounds was how a sturdy customer like Faruque managed to swallow a pill so sour.