Rokibul, who walked out on the team hotel in Chittagong Wednesday afternoon having announced his decision in front of the Bangladesh team, said that he had taken enough time to come to this conclusion.

He was dropped from the team for the only Test in New Zealand earlier this year after failing in the first one-dayer. Since then, he says, he felt largely deprived.

“I was taken to New Zealand but was not picked for the Test match. Then I was not picked in the one-day side [that played England at home] and I am not in the World Twenty20 probables,” said Rokibul outside his Mirpur residence yesterday evening. He delayed his return by a few hours after learning of the media’s presence.

The 22-year-old right-handed batsman scored an unbeaten 107 and a half-century in the practice match against England only last week that hastened his return to the Test fold. But he claimed that this was a part of his plan that can only be called a sort of revenge on the cricket board.

“I felt that I wasn’t getting enough attention from the cricket board and so I decided to make voluntary retirement once I was back in the team on my merit,” said Rokibul in his initial monologue.

“I couldn’t secure my position and was always on the fringe of the squad.

“It was my wish to retire at this time,” he said before refusing to comment on whether it was emotions that played a major part in his early retirement. He also refused to be drawn into any war of words with captain Shakib Al Hasan who termed it as ‘emotional and silly’.

He also informed that he will not take part in domestic cricket for now and still hasn’t considered his future before rushing up the stairs.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh Cricket Board released their official version regarding the Rokibul episode yesterday.

“Batsman Rokibul Hasan on Wednesday notified the Bangladesh Cricket Board that he was retiring from cricket with immediate effect. The abrupt nature of this announcement has come as a shock to everyone concerned as this was totally unexpected,” read the statement.

“The Board understands that this was a unilateral decision on part of the player but also feels that it was rather pre-mature. We certainly do not wish to see a young talented cricketer like Rokibul leaving the game so early and hope that he will reconsider his position.

“It has also come to our notice that certain quarters have related the situation with Rokibul to the selection process of the BCB. We take this opportunity to reiterate once again that selection of Test, ODI and T20 Teams is based purely on performance and merit and is done at the discretion of the national selection committee which has its own criteria for picking players. Therefore, there is no scope for emotion in this regard.

“Rokibul Hasan is an important member of the Bangladesh National Team and it is our sincere expectation that he will return to mainstream cricket at the earliest,” concluded the statement.

Till the filing of this report at midnight, it was known that Rokibul was in Dhaka. The Daily Star made several attempts to contact him but it was fruitless as the batsman’s phone was switched off.

Bangladesh Cricket Board director Jalal Yunus confirmed that Rokibul submitted his resignation letter to team operations manager Shafiqul Haque Heera in Chittagong, who faxed it to the board office in Mirpur. Then he proceeded to board a flight to Dhaka from Chittagong.

The drama unfolded yesterday morning when the 22-year-old Rokibul refused to bat in the nets after travelling to the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium with the team. Then while returning to the hotel he stunned the Tigers in the team bus where he suddenly announced that he would retire from all forms of cricket and would ‘never play again’.

According to team sources, it shocked the entire squad who tried to talk reason into him. But Rokibul maintained his stance and also refused to elaborate.

The team sources confirmed a similar pattern of behaviour. Rokibul implied that he was willing to ‘teach them a lesson’ and it was a ‘revenge of sorts’ after he was unceremoniously axed from the national team for the England ODIs. The team management including the selectors were culprits in his eyes.

At the time, the board did not accept a team with Rokibul in it when the selectors named him in the 14-man squad for the ODIs. That had him cut out of the Tigers side and he was forced to play a practice game against England. He slammed an unbeaten 107 and a fifty to force his way back into the Test series and according to some close to him, he was positive in his talk.

As the drama unfolded in front of his teammates’ eyes, he informed chief selector Rafiqul Alam of his retirement. Rafiqul asked him the reasons of his decision but Rokibul said it was ‘personal’.

After informing the Tigers, Rokibul called up his Jamalpur home where he talked to his elder brother Shafiqul Islam to express his desire.

“He [Rokibul] called me and said that he has quit the national team and was going to Dhaka,” said Shafiqul when contacted over phone.

“He told us that he had informed the captain and the coach of his decision, but I requested him not to take such a reckless decision.

“We know that he is someone who always makes the right call but this [retirement] has shocked us all at home,” said Shafiqul, a service-holder in Jamalpur.

According to Shafiqul, his brother had recently expressed dissatisfaction with the way he was treated by the team management over the last two months. “After returning from New Zealand, he told me that he was just taken therebut made to sit out the Test matches,” said Shafiqul.

“He told me that he was in form but wasn’t scoring enough runs. ‘Maybe that was my only fault’ he said,” added Shafiqul.

There was another version in a leading website where it was claimed that a BCB insider said Rokibul had been ‘compromised’ as the board also rejected his name from the Test squad.

“The selectors were told by the board to drop Raqibul and Ashraful from the Test squad,” the BCB insider told the website. “The selectors refused to drop Raqibul after he scored a century and a fifty in the warm-up game at Chittagong and Raqibul has returned to Dhaka feeling that his position in the team is compromised.”

But Jalal Yunus, also the media committee chairman of the board, strongly denied any such claims. “We completely denounce this report. It was written with the reporter’s own assumptions about the incident,” he said.

“He [Rokibul] was very much in the side and there were no questions about it [his position in the Test team]. The notion that this team was also rejected by the board members is completely false and I would like the contributor to mention the name of the ‘BCB insider’,” added Yunus.

India will host the final and one semifinal while Sri Lanka will stage the other semifinal. The other two quarterfinals will be hosted by the two co-hosts.

Bangladesh will stage eight matches at two grounds as well as the opening ceremony on February 18, 2011. India will host 29 of the 49 matches across eight venues and Sri Lanka will host 12 in three venues.

“We [the board] are happy that we got two quarterfinals but it is true that we expected a semifinal. Sri Lanka wanted to hold the opening ceremony, giving us the semifinal but we kept the opening ceremony and were given the quarterfinals,” revealed BCB media committee chairman Jalal Yunus.

“Now that the number of matches are confirmed we are definitely looking forward to working hard and wasting no time,” said Yunus.

The BCB will decide on three venues for the eight matches with one kept as alternate before the International Cricket Council (ICC) hold their inspection of the venues.

“Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, Fatullah Stadium, Bangabandhu National Stadium and Chittagong Divisional Stadium are the ICC approved Test venues so we would decide on the three venues for the World Cup before ICC comes for their inspection,” added Yunus.

BCB has less than two years now to be prepared for the opening ceremony as well as the matches but Yunus sounded confident of being ready.

“I think two years is enough time and I think it’s best if we don’t waste time and start working towards it,” said Yunus.

Cricinfo adds: The World Cup’s organising committee also decided to shift the tournament secretariat from Lahore to Mumbai. BCCI’s chief administrative officer Ratnakar Shetty was appointed the event’s managing director in place of Pakistani banker Salman Butt. The organising committee, headed by ICC vice-president Sharad Pawar, will include an operations and planning group comprising the Bangladesh Cricket Board senior vice-president Mahbubul Anam, Indian board secretary N Srinivasan, Sri Lanka’s Duleep Mendis and Shetty. Haroon Lorgat, the ICC’s chief executive, said IS Bindra, the special adviser to the ICC, would be a key person in the management of the World Cup.

He swept aside questions on whether Pakistan would boycott the World Cup in protest at being denied hosting rights, saying “we will cross the bridge when we come to it.” The ICC had to decide on the redistribution of Pakistan’s 14 matches after it removed the country from the list of hosts because the “uncertain political situation” would have made it difficult to “deliver a safe, secure and successful event” in Pakistan.

Lorgat said the security concerns of the various ICC members and the players would be addressed with the formation of a special committee headed by Shashank Manohar, the BCCI chief, to oversee security details. “The security arrangements are very important and a special committee… would put together security plans for the successful conduct of the World Cup in 2011,” he said.

“We are confident of organising a very successful World Cup,” Lorgat said.

The subcontinent last hosted a World Cup in 1996, when India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka shared the games. The final was in Lahore, where Sri Lanka beat favourites Australia in a famous win.

It was a vital win for the Motijheel outfit, which has now enabled them to brighten their Super League chances as well as keeping their hopes alive in the title race as they improved their tally to 11 points from nine matches.

Biman’s second defeat in the nine games however paved the way for Abahani to take a solo lead in the point-table as Mashrafe Bin Mortaza led from the front with an all-round performance, to secure a 25-run victory for the defending champions against BKSP at the Fatullah Cricket Stadium.

MOHAMMEDAN-BIMAN

The dashing left-hander Jayasuriya scored only two runs but it was former Tigers paceman Aziz who hogged the spotlight in the clash of the heavyweights.

Tareq first claimed four wickets conceding 36 runs as Biman were all out for 231 runs in 48.5 overs, after opting to bat first despite opener Nazmus Sadat’s stroke-filled 80.

Tareq then played a pivotal part with the bat in front of a sparse crowd at the big bowl as the number ten batsman smashed a straight six off spinner Nabil Samad, which brought the winning runs for Mohammedan with two balls to spare.

One down Nadimuddin however top scored with 51 off 91 balls that featured three fours and a six while Nasiruddin Faruque and Faisal Hossain scored 38 runs each.

Earlier Sadat smoted eight fours and three sixes during his 70-ball 80 while skipper Sanwar Hossain contributed 41 off 68 balls with one boundary as Biman put up a decent total on the board.

Besides Tareq, pacer Dollar Mahmud claimed three wickets for 51 runs while Jayasuriya took two for 38 runs.

BIMAN: 231 all out in 48.5 overs (Sadat 80, Zahid 20, Sanwar 41, Mushfiqur 24, extras 22; Tareq 4-36, Jayasuriya 2-38, Dollar 3-51)
MOHAMMEDAN: 234-8 in 49.4 overs (Faruque 38, Nadimuddin 51, Rokibul 27, Shamsur 28, Faisal 38, extras 16; Shahadat 3-38, Nabil 2-49)
Result: Mohammedan won by two wickets.

The left-arm appeared for the reassessment tests at the Australian Institute of Sports (AIS) in Canberra on February 23 where member of the ICC panel of human movement specialists conducted the assessment.

Razzak will be considered for selection for the home series if his action is declared legal in the ICC report but it must come before March 4.

The Pakistan team will arrive in Dhaka on March 7 to play two Twenty20 and five one-day internationals in Dhaka and Chittagong.

The national team’s preparation camp for the coming home series against Pakistan will be start from March 4 but chief selector Rafiqul Alam said that they will also prefer the national players play league matches as much as possible.

“The camp will start on March 4 or March 5 after selection of the national squad but we will release the players who has match until March 7. There is nothing better than playing competitive matches,” said Rafiqul yesterday.

Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful also wants to play the league matches as much as possible.

“It’s always better to play competitive matches,” said Ashraful.

Reigning champions Abahani defeated Victoria by 11 runs in the Premier Division Ewenty20 League at the Fatullah stadium.

Batting first, Abahani were all out for 135 runs in 20 overs with Nadif Chowdhury scoring 30 and Shahagir Hossain adding 16. Sharafullah scalped three wickets for 20 runs.

In reply, Amit Majumder hit a fine 54 for Victoria but all the other batsmen failed to make any significant contribution as they managed 124 for seven in the allotted overs. Ziaur Rahman picked up four wickets for 17 runs.

Dhaka Mohammedan beat Partex by nine runs at the BKSP. Sohrawardi Shuvo scored 37, Marshall Ayub added 29 and Rashedul Huq scored 25 as Mohammedan posted 136 for five after batting first. Mehrab Hossain Opee’s 29, Wasiur Rahman Joy’s 27 and Mushfiqur Rahim’s 24 could not save Partex as they stopped on 127 for five.

Gazi Tanks defeated BKSP by 18 runs at the Fatullah stadium. Batting first, Gazi Tanks piled up 136 for three in 20 overs with Imrul Kayes scoring 38, Mithun Ali adding 31, Nayeem Islam contributing 28 and Mohammad Ashraful remaining not out on 30. Later, Nayeem Islam took three wickets for 15 runs as BKSP finished their 20 overs making 118 for nine. Shaikat Ali’s 38 and Imamul Mustaqim’s 28 were the other notable scorers.

Young Pegasus and Old DOHS ended up in a tie at the Mirpur stadium but at the end of the match Old DOHS were declared winners by one run in the one-over-per-side batting. Batting first, Young Pegasus scored 121 for seven with Bulbul Bashak scoring 38 and Rajesh chipping in with 23. Later, Fazle Rabbi of DOHS led the charge with 36 and Raju added 14 at No 10 to finish the match in a tie. DOHS had scored 121 for eight. Abul Bashar scalped two wickets for 19 runs. In the one-over batting, Old DOHS scored eight runs while Young Pegasus made seven.

Biman Bangladesh defeated CCS by one wicket in a competitive match at the Mirpur stadium. CCS batted first and scored 101 runs for seven in 20 overs with Uttam Sarker and Shuvo making 28 and 23 respectively. Nabil Samad grabbed four wickets for 11 runs. Later, pacer Shahadat Hossain, who had taken two wickets earlier, played a match-winning innings of 22 not out at No 10 to guide Biman to victory.

Surjo Tarun beat City Club by 11 runs at the BKSP. Two identical 33-run innings from Rajin Saleh and Anisur Rahman helped Surjo Tarun post 133 for five and they later restricted City Club to 122 to win the match.