The Bangladesh national team senior assistant coach Mohammad Salahuddin accused former adviser of the interim government Asif Nazrul of telling ‘blatant lies’ regarding the issue of the country’s pulling out from the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.

Earlier, Asif had stated that Bangladesh’s refusal to participate in the World Cup was completely up to the government. However, on February 10, he reportedly made a U-turn when he claimed that that decision was taken by the Bangladesh Cricket Board and the players who had made a sacrifice.

‘There is no question of regret [at being excluded from the World Cup]. This decision was taken by the BCB and the players as they made sacrifices for the safety of the country’s cricket, the safety of the people and to protect national dignity,’ he said.

But a day after much repercussion, Asif clarified that his comment was taken out of context. He also said that it had been the government›s decision to pull out due to security concerns.

However, in a recent interaction with the media, Salahuddin made scathing comments towards Asif’s U-turn.

‘He told such blatant lies,’ he told the reporters at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Thursday. ‘I myself am a teacher; teachers generally lie a bit less. That he would say such lies so openly—I honestly can’t even imagine it.’

‘How will I even show my face in front of the boys? He is a teacher at Dhaka University. A person from the highest educational institution of my country telling such lies—we can’t accept this. How can we accept this? He said one thing earlier and later took a U-turn, he added.

Salahuddin also said that dreams were shattered within seconds due to that decision of the government.

‘When a boy goes to play in a World Cup, he brings his dream—his 27-year-old dream—there. You destroy that dream in one second. Fine, if it’s a country’s decision taken for national reasons, they will sacrifice for the country. But if you talk about loss, I will talk only about personal loss,’ he said.

‘I know that two of my players went into a kind of coma—mentally—for five days, completely lost. No one knows where they have been. The fact that we were able to bring them back onto the field in this tournament [Odommo Bangladesh T20 Cup] is itself a big thing. I think this is the biggest success of my coaching life—that he came back onto the field and scored runs again,’ he added.

‘Money is a factor, but it’s a small factor. What really matters is that the World Cup he has dreamed about all his life—he wanted to play that World Cup,’ he further said.

The senior coach also said that there should have been better communication with the players.

‘See, I am ready to sacrifice a lot of things for the country. The boys will do that too. But have they been consoled? If that would have been done through better communication, many things would be bearable,’ he said.

‘Because not only money but also many things matter. We should have been beside them. In the recent tournament, I didn’t say a single technical thing. My main job was to bring them back to the field,’ he added.