Editorial
What a way to treat our cricketers!
Hosts' hospitality leaves much to be desired
We feel so strongly about the conduct of the Pakistani Cricket Board towards the Bangladeshi players that we simply can't accept it. Such an unprecedented kind of gesture to a guest team can only be described as an expression of prejudice towards their fellow guest players. Whoever prompted such a ridiculous and insulting thing must remember that Pakistan is not doing any favour by playing Bangladesh. Their excuse for not being able to provide seats in the executive class to most of the Bangladesh team members sounds ludicrous. If they indeed received the list of Bangladeshi players late, then the least they could have done was to make alternative arrangements, like taking another flight. But putting their own players along with only Bangladeshi team manager, coach and other officials in the executive class and the guest players in the economy class does not fall into any of the standard international cricketing norms and etiquette. We would like to view it as a genuine 'faux pas' and not construe it as an attempt to demean a guest team. But we must decry such an overbearing, thoughtless and crude gesture. They have simply changed the meaning of the word 'hospitality'. Even the internationally reputed coach of Bangladesh team Dav Whatmore condemned the incident and rightfully expressed his anger over the shoddy arrangements. Bangladesh has hosted many international cricket tournaments, but not a single guest team has had any grievances against us. It is natural to go the extra mile in terms of courtesy to a guest team. It seems obvious that our hosts were not aware of that.
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