Mashud sets deadline to quit as ground committee chairman

Khaled Mashud, Bangladesh Cricket Board's ground committee chairman, on Tuesday hinted that he is ready to quit if his contributions aren't good enough over the next few months. Mashud, who recently replaced BCB president Aminul Islam as ground committee chairman, made the announcement at the Purbachal Cricket Stadium where he went alongside board officials to have a look at the state of affairs.

"We have seen over the last 15, 30, or 40 years that people come and go. People like us are actually very bad. I am telling you this as a director. People like us have misused the Cricket Board in various ways; they have misused these "chairs" (positions)," said Mashud.

"I pray that Allah does not give us the opportunity to misuse it like that, and I don't want to do that. If I see that I cannot do the work, if within three to six months I see I am unable to deliver good work, I think I will quit and leave," he said.

"I didn't come here for the chair; I came for the development of cricket. If I see I can't work, there's no point in staying. I am not here to earn money. To me, this chair isn't important; what is important is how well I can work and how much knowledge I can share here," he said.

Meanwhile, the former national team captain said that they will form an inquiry committee to investigate the soil theft at Purbachal Cricket Stadium that came under spotlight after it was reported in the media that suggested 'misappropriation of stadium soil'. "I heard this (about soil theft). I came to know about 20,000 CFT (Cubic Feet) of soil was supposed to fall in Purbachal where as now, what has been seen through measurement and what I heard and what I saw on paper is that about 7,500 CFT of soil is there and almost 12,500 CFT of soil is missing," he said.

"See, suspecting any human being is actually very bad, I always feel one should know the proper facts first. I saw in the bill that there was an order for an amount of 20,000 CFT soil, but when our measurement was done, almost 7,500 was found. Did it fall? Or didn't it fall? Or who signed it? Who didn't? We have to look at the whole thing," he said.

"We have to form a very transparent inquiry committee so that the whole scenario comes out regarding who is involved," he said.