Massive confusion over Chris Gayle's Bangladesh Premier League exit

Chris Gayle during his unbeaten 92 against Chittagong Vikings

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) President Nazmul Hassan has said the board is investigating Barisal Bulls’ decision not to play Chris Gayle in the Bangladesh Premier League’s (BPL) second qualifier, but did not elaborate on the matter when asked further.

The Barisal management informed at the time that Gayle had protested of back pain on December 13. The BPL was the Jamaican’s comeback tournament since undergoing back surgery.

During a press conference, Hassan was asked if the BCB had received any complaints regarding specific allegations of corruption in the BPL. He said the board had not received any, but they were looking into the Gayle issue.

Hassan said “One could hold suspicion about certain matches from the BPL's first two seasons.But none of that caught our attention this time. Our local ACSU team, who worked during the BPL, didn't inform us of anything, but it is a continuous process.At the same time, there is one issue which they are already working on. It is about Chris Gayle's appearance in the semifinal. There is some discussion about it. We are looking into it. I am not saying there was anything untoward but we are investigating the matter.”

When he was asked to elaborate the Gayle issue further, Hassan promptly said it would be inappropriate to discuss the matter without any specific complaint.

The team was not going to force Gayle to play: Rizwan

The Barisal franchise co-owner Rizwan bin Farouk said the team was not going to force any player into playing a game with a back injury.

Farouk said "If the player is injured, he can't play. You can't force him to play. He has had an operation. When he called the doctor, he was told to go back immediately."

During his Barisal stay, the hard hitting batsman played four games, scoring 139 runs including an unbeaten 92 against Chittagong Vikings on December 9. He was left out of the match against Dhaka Dynamites on December 10.

In an interview the BPL governing council chairman Afzalur Rahman Sinha said "We have to examine if there was any other motive in this regard. We have to find out why Gayle wasn't played. We will investigate the matter after the tournament. They could have let us know earlier. The BCB physio and doctors could have looked after the problem. But they didn't tell us. We heard that he won't be playing a little while before the match began, and that he will be leaving the country. If he had an injury, he wouldn't be able to field the full game yesterday. It would have been revealed in the field.”

According to the BPL's rules and playing regulations, the BCB and the BPL's governing council and technical committee do not have the jurisdiction in the composition of a team's playing XI.

At the toss of the same game, Barisal captain Mahmudullah Riyad said Gayle was unavailable because he was going to join his BBL team in Australia. Barisal Bulls manager Saidul Islam said in an interview "He informed us this morning that he has back pain, which is why he can't play today. Because he just returned from injury, we didn't force him. Gayle wants to have treatment of his back pain in Australia."

But in the post-match press conference Sabbir Rahman said the Barisal team had known of Gayle's unavailability earlier. Rahman said "After our last match, we heard that Gayle wouldn’t be playing this game.”