Abahani Limited’s cricket committee chairman Nazmul Hasan papon (C) speaks at a press conference on Thursday. — New Age photo

Defending champions of the Dhaka Premier League Abahani Limited have promised to return to the field but only if their demands are met by the Bangladesh Cricket Board.
The club’s cricket committee chairman Nazmul Hasan Papon at a press conference on Thursday said they are ready to play from April 17 if the BCB reorganises the Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metropolis, award them the two points against Victoria and punish the culprits for faking the transfer clearance of Pakistani cricketer Mohammad Yusuf 
‘Till now our position is very clear. We won’t play in the league unless these conditions are fulfilled,’ he said, adding that all but Victoria Sporting Club have their full backing to the demands.  
‘We the five clubs playing in the Super League met today and agreed with the demands. We as a club are always in favour of playing the games. But what happened this season is totally unacceptable to us,’ he said.
The firm position of Abahani ended any hopes the BCB had to resume the league very soon, complicating the matter further, as the Board now has to give a ruling on whether Victoria had really faked the transfer clearance of Yusuf or not.
The BCB last week asked Yusuf to refrain from further participation in the Dhaka Premier League as the legitimacy of his registration for Victoria is being disputed by Mohammedan Sporting Club.
Abahani said by doing so the BCB has adopted a double standard as they, on the one hand, awarded Victoria two points against Abahani despite them fielding a disputed player and on other hand asked the player not to appear against other teams.
‘Doesn’t it mean that they gave Yusuf the legitimacy for one game? Why? This cannot be the rule. This is being done to hide their mistake and injustice,’ said Papon.
‘This CCDM body has already set several examples of their ineptitude and as a consequence we also suffered.
‘They have relegated Surja Taurn by overruling the decision of match-referee. But now they are using the decision of match referee against us. The law cannot be different for different teams. We want it to be equal for all.
‘When Surja Tarun failed to reach the ground for their match against Kalabagan because of a road accident on their way they duly informed it to the match referee. Later the match referee in his report mentioned that both teams refused to play. But they had relegated only Surjo Tarun,’ he said.
Abahani also questioned the BCB’s decision of increasing the registration of foreign players, which the club said was taken to favour only Victoria as no other club demanded it.
‘When the league was stopped for the BPL [Bangladesh Premier League] and Asia Cup and the league appeared to clash with the IPL [Indian Premier League], we had made a similar request but they [the CCDM] did not entertain it,’ said Papon. 
‘We never thought the league could come to this far and so registered many Indian players. They resumed the league two days after the Asia Cup without allowing us to recruit new overseas players. We lost the game by five runs which effectively threw us out of title race,’ he said
‘Now they have allowed to register more foreigners only to favour Victoria as they have lost Sakib [al Hasan], Tamim [Iqbal] to the IPL,’ he said.
Asked if they would demand to reorganise the Board, which also showed their inability to handle the whole affair, Papon tactfully evaded the question.
‘The CCDM is mainly responsible and let the Board reorganise it first,’ said Papon, the ruling party lawmaker and son of president Zillur Rahman, who had replaced BCB president AHM Mustafa Kamal as Abahani cricket committee chairman a few years back.