Delhi’s pollution no problem for Bangla

Vinayak Padmadeo

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 31

The Indian cricket (BCCI) officials would be relieved today as Bangladesh played generous guests and didn’t comment on the pollution levels in the city. Bangladesh batsmen Liton Das, who showed up for the team’s practice wearing a mask, said he was not concerned about the Delhi pollution.

Das’s response would be music to the ears of BCCI officials, who have been under pressure from environmentalists and as well as former India international Gautam Gambhir to shift Sunday’s Twenty20 match from the city because of pollution.

The Air Quality Index reading was 412 — in the severe category — at around noon today. However, though he did make a brief appearance with a mask on, Das batted away all the probing questions about pollution. 

Das, in fact, went out of his way to play down concerns of playing under the haze. “I wore it because of my own problem, that’s all. I was batting without it in the nets so it is OK,” the 25-year-old said.

He said he wasn’t concerned about Delhi’s air quality. Finally, to a question about the difficulty in spotting the white ball under the haze, he said: “I think it (spotting) will be OK during the day-night match because of the floodlights.”

Stoical response

Das’s response to the ban on Shakib Al Hasan was equally stoical. “Everything is good, we are looking forward to the series,” he responded to a question about the mood in the team after their leader was banned for failing to report an approach from a bookie.

“Shakib was the best player in our team and we are going to miss him. But we have played without him previously when he was injured during Asia Cup,” Das said.

 “We will try our best. We are good enough, but maybe the finishing part is a problem. Hopefully things will be different for us this time,” he said.

He also said that despite Virat Kohli’s absence, India would be a formidable outfit. “Even without him there are very good players in the Indian side,” he said. “We are also missing a few of our experienced players. At the end of the day, it is a game of cricket so it doesn’t really matter who is playing and who is not.”

Shakib didn’t take approaches too seriously, says Ashraful

dhaka: Former Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful believes that the ban imposed on Shakib al Hasan for failing to report corrupt approaches is going to be a shock to the system, adding that there should not be too much publicity about the all-rounder. Ashraful, who has now returned to playing First-Class cricket after his five-year ban (of which two years are suspended) for match-fixing in 2013 during the Bangladesh Premier League, believes the next 12 months will be difficult for Shakib. “Our cases are different; he didn’t inform the fixing approaches to authorities, while I was fully involved in the match-fixing,” he said. “But this is going to be a shock to the system. We love playing cricket. What Shakib is going through is hard to explain in words. I think there shouldn’t be too much news about him. Dealing with so much news was hard for me,” he added. IANS