There are so many incidents happening in tandem around Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) that sometimes issues get swept under the rug without coming into notice.

There is an ongoing investigation into BCB's financial mishaps by Anti-Corruption Commission of the government while suggestions of match-fixing plague the ongoing Dhaka Premier League and the recently-concluded Bangladesh Premier League. While investigation committees have been formed to look into these issues, the incident regarding reduction of Towhid Hridoy's two-match DPL suspension or the resignation of match-referee Enamul Haque Moni, who was the convener of the technical committee that was supposed to deal with Hridoy's suspension, have not set the alarm bells ringing. But they should.

There has been no clear-cut answer forthcoming on how Mohammedan captain Hridoy was allowed to play after serving a one-match ban when the technical committee of DPL did not authorise the request, a job that should be solely their undertaking. This is happening because the murky club cricket culture is eating away at Bangladesh cricket is still at play. The balance of power may have shifted from one to another but the same processes remain.

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Hridoy suspended for a match after heated exchange with umpire 

What happened is a travesty. CCDM had formed a technical committee comprising Moni, Selim Sahed and Abhi Abdullah Al Noman. Hridoy sent in the letter requesting reduction of suspension to the technical committee, a request which members of the technical committee did not want to entertain. Moni himself told The Daily Star that he resigned because of conflict of interest as he is a match referee and cannot hold the technical committee role since he would be passing judgement from two different places. But according to sources, Moni resigned following developments related to reduction of suspension.

In fact, a law change had been effected and the sanction table had been revised overnight following the judgement against Hridoy. The original bylaws said that a player would be suspended for two matches if he accumulated 4-7 demerit points. But following the Hridoy judgement, the law was changed to one-match suspension for 4-7 accumulated demerit points. 

Moni had earlier said he had nothing to do with Hridoy's suspension being reduced. What could have effected such a change in how sanctions are adjudicated in such a short space of time, especially when the convener of technical committee resigned?

Sources say that a certain club created enormous pressure on CCDM to allow Hridoy to play after just one-match suspension. The CCDM then embroiled the umpires' committee into this controversy as it was on behalf of the umpires' committee that an official had signed the memo of sanction table revision, which shows how demerit points will equate to match suspensions from now on. The technical committee did not issue that change and CCDM had to coerce the umpires' committee to validate the procedure despite leaving many holes in the fabric.

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According to insiders, BCB directors Nazmul Abedeen Fahim and Ifekhar Ahmed Mithu were reluctant to reduce the ban but the pressure created by the club had the last say.

When Mithu, the umpires' committee chairman, was asked by this newspaper how Hridoy's ban was reduced or how such a sanction change can come into place, he refused to comment.

Hridoy's altercation with umpires resulting from what he believed were wrong decisions against his team shows signs of an already rotten culture. But the way the sentence was reduced adds further layers of lack of integrity to the mix.

One BCB director, on condition of anonymity, told The Daily Star: 'Jei lau shei kodui ache' (it is as it used to be before). That appears to be the prevailing culture of Bangladesh cricket.