Mushfiqur Rahim has apologised to his Beximco Dhaka team-mate Nasum Ahmed for misbehaving with him twice during their Bangabandhu T20 Cup match against Fortune Barishal on Monday. In a match that Dhaka eventually won by nine runs, to remain in contention for a place in the final, Rahim's behaviour with his team-mates, notwithstanding their fielding errors, was bizarre.
In the 13th over of the chase, when the Barishal batsman Afif Hossain started counter-attack, Rahim seemed to lose the plot. When the left-hander turned one towards the vacant short midwicket area for a single, both Rahim and Ahmed chased after the ball and after reaching their first, Rahim made a threatening gesture towards Ahmed, seemingly for not reaching there before him.
Dhaka started to make more errors. Yasir Ali couldn't cut off and later chase down Hossain's simple push to cover, resulting in a gifted boundary. Al-Amin fumbled a throw from the deep, with Hossain halfway down the crease. Then when he mistimed a scoop, resulting in a simple catch for Rahim, the Dhaka captain lost it.
Ahmed, fielding at short fine leg, lightly collided with Rahim as he was completing the catch, which was enough for him to threaten to throw a punch at his team-mate. Having avoided making an apology at the post-match presentation, Rahim made one on his Facebook page on Tuesday morning.
"Assalamualaikum to all, First of all officially I would like to apologize to all my fans and spectators regarding the incident that happened yesterday during the match," Rahim wrote. "I have already apologized after the game to my fellow team mate Nasum. Secondly I seek forgiveness from Almighty. I always remember I am a human being above all and the gesture that I have shown was not acceptable at all. In shaa Allah in near future I promise it won't be repeated on the ground or outside the ground....JazakAllah khair."
There still hasn't been any charges laid against Rahim, although match referee Raqibul Hasan said that any action taken will depend on the umpires' report at the end of the match.
"According to the code of conduct, no one can disrespect his own team-mate or opponent," Hasan told Prothom Alo. "It looked odd. The umpires will investigate the matter. It depends on the umpires' report. I haven't received anything officially."
The BCB's chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury said that the matter rests with the match officials, adding that Rahim should have known better.
"They [the match officials] will look into the matter," Chowdhury said. "If they feel that it should be brought to our consideration, then we can look at it. Mushfiqur should have shown restraint. I am sure no one needs to teach him these things after playing 15 years at the highest level."
Source: ESPNcricinfo