Staff Correspondent

The Bangladesh Premier League governing council used match-referee Mike Proctor on Tuesday to justify their dubious decision of excluding Chittagong Kings from the tournament semi-final.

The governing council approved a technical committee decision that ruled Barisal Burners as the fourth semi-finalist despite tournament bylaws suggesting completely otherwise.

The clause of 21.8 ( 2) of the bylaws said : ‘When three or more teams finish with equal points and equal wins in the league, then the team(s) which was (were) the winner of the most number of matches played between those equal teams in the league will be placed in the higher position(s).’

Dhaka, Chittagong and Barisal all have secured 10 points and in that count Dhaka have three wins (two against Barisal and one against Chittagong), Chittagong have two wins (one against Dhaka and one against Barisal) while Barisal have just one win against Chittagong.

The technical committee in a meeting that ended at around 2:00am still ruled Barisal above Chittagong, which is contradictory to a clarification provided by governing council chairman Gazi Ashraf Hossain.

Proctor, who attended the meeting as a member of the technical committee, said they went through the rule for long and finally made the decision.  ‘Because they [Dhaka] ended up with the most points they went through. Now there were two teams left. You can’t have a head-to-head between three teams, but only two,’ said Proctor in a press conference.

Proctor, who is otherwise respected in the cricketing world, however said this was not his personal decision, rather a collective one. ‘I do feel for Chittagong Kings, but unfortunately we have to leave one team out,’ said Proctor.

BPL governing council member-secretary Sirajuddin Mohammad Alamgir, who accompanied Proctor in the press conference, said the clarification given by chairman Gazi Ashraf Hossain was his personal opinion.

‘It was his personal opinion which he should not have given,’ said Alamgir.

When it was pointed out to him that the BCB president AHM Mustafa Kamal, in a television talk show on Monday, also congratulated Chittagong Kings, Alamgir termed it as a personal opinion as well.

‘May be he is a Chittagong supporter,’ said Alamgir before he ended the press conference abruptly amid a chorus of ‘shame.’