(Source X)
Zaffir Yasin, owner and CEO of the Mississauga Bangla Tigers in the Global T20 (GT20) Canada, addressed the uproar from their Eliminator match against the Toronto Nationals. He criticized the tournament’s readiness, highlighting issues like “not fit to play” conditions, inconsistent boundary sizes, and sudden rule changes.
Despite the game being disrupted by rain and a wet field, the umpire insisted on a super-over, leading to the Tigers’ skipper Shakib Al Hasan’s refusal to participate in the toss, which resulted in a Toronto Nationals victory.
Yasin noted that star players like Chris Lynn, Usman Khawaja, Colin Munro, and Marcus Stoinis had ongoing concerns about the conditions. Furthermore, he mentioned that boundaries were improperly measured.
“First things first, the conditions were not fit to play. That was loud and clear. In the whole tournament, when other captains [Chris Lynn, Usman Khawaja, Colin Munro and Marcus Stoinis] complained that the field conditions were not fit to play, the tournament committee, the technical committee accepted and the match referee all accepted that. And they were right.
“Plus, there were other issues. The officials altered the size of the boundary after the official start time of the match. Additionally, they were decreasing the boundary size without an official measurement. They did it by themselves; they had no idea what they were doing. The ground took up a zig-zag structure on one side.”
This rule was made one day before on WhatsApp – Bangla Tigers owner Zaffir Yasin
Zaffir Yasin strongly criticized the Global T20 for their handling of changes in playing conditions, revealing that the updates were communicated via WhatsApp just before the game. He argued that such significant alterations should have been addressed in discussions with the Technical Committee, the team owners, and Cricket Canada, rather than through informal channels.
“One day before the match, and also on the day of the game, they shared a message on Whatsapp saying that a Super Over will be played in case a 5-over game isn’t possible. Have you ever seen a situation where a match is decided by a super over because it’s raining heavily?
“This rule was made one day before on WhatsApp. That’s a significant change in the playing conditions which should have been discussed with the Technical Committee, The Owners and Cricket Canada because this is a whole different rule altogether,” he concluded.
