DHANGADHI, Feb 23: Mahendranagar United has progressed to final of the third season of Dhangadhi Premier League (DPL) after Kathmandu Goldens forfeited the Qualifier 2 match in the wake of ban to its Indian bowler Ankit Dabas from bowling in the tournament. 

The match was scheduled to take place at 12:30 PM at Fapla International Cricket Ground in Dhnagadhi on Friday. United will face CYC Attariya in the final on Saturday.

According to a provision of ICC code of conduct (16.1.2), if the team fails to report on the pre-stated schedule then the official technical team has to declare the opposition a winner by forfeit.

“The team failed to report at ground on time which is one hour prior to the scheduled match on 12:30 PM. We inquired about their participation and consulted with each other before the technical committee decided to award United with the win under ICC procedure,” said Sameer Khan, the DPL match referee.

Goldens boycotted the second qualifier match accusing the technical team of DPL of continuous ‘torture’ and ‘pressure’. “The decision made by the technical committee regarding Ankit’s (Dabas) bowling action was not made in our favor hence we are boycotting DPL from this instant. We went to meet them officially but they had already announced the decision to the press and sent it to ICC. In that situation, we had no other option available,” said Sanjay Shrestha, the team manager of Goldens. “Dabas has been playing professional cricket in India. He was never accused of such action (illegal action). Then why umpires and referees from Nepal are trying to torture and demoralize players in our country or scare us with ICC rules and regulations.”

He further accused technical team of not applying rules equally to all. “Last year, they had problem with our bowler Rashid Khan and this time they again stood against us. I don’t think ICC would approve such grounds (Fapla) for premier league tournaments but then we played here. ICC rules should be equal for all. We might not play (DPL) next year as well,” he added. 

The head of the technical committee and umpire of elite ICC panel, Buddhi Bahadur Pradhan said that Goldens was informed about the dubious action in previous matches but the team’s management failed to rectify it.

“We had already informed Goldens management in previous games about inaccuracies in Dabas’ actions but the management was not able to convey the message to the player. We have sufficient evidence of illegal action,” said Pradhan.

He further added that they reviewed Dabas’ action after every match. “At first, there was a problem in some of his deliveries but by the end of last league stage match almost every delivery was suspicious. Hence, we had to take this decision,” he said. 

Dabas of Goldens found to have illegal bowling action and was reported twice by the on-field umpires in two different games of Goldens for his suspected illegal bowling action in ongoing DPL.

After making video analysis, the tournament technical committee termed his bowling arm action illegal and decided not to allow him bowl in next matches on Thursday.

Dabas has played 7 List-A and 4 T20 matches for Jharkhand before 2016. He was adjudged player of the match three times in first four matches for Goldens in the ongoing DPL. The right-arm off-spinner took six wickets in five matches with an economy rate of 3.85 in total 20 overs.

Likewise, the United skipper Sharad Vesawkar assured to have played the match if he was put into similar situation. “I was unaware of the situation until I reached the ground. I didn’t even know what the exact reason was. But I wouldn’t have boycotted the match,” he said. 

 
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