Mustafa Kamal resigned on Wednesday as International Cricket Council president and immediately launched an extraordinary attack on the world body's chairman, Narayanswami Srinivasan.
- ICC president Kamal resigns over World Cup presentation fiasco
Calling him "rotten and controversial", after returning to his country, the Bangladesh Cricket Board president said the ICC could now be called the 'Indian Cricket Council'.
"I feel bad even to mention his name. If that man is in charge of cricket, how will cricket run?
"These type of people should be away from cricket; these kind of people are polluting the game. Otherwise cricket will be spoiled. It is my earnest request to the ICC to revisit these things and people should research why I have resigned.
"With my resignation I paved the way for ensuring justice for this injustice,” Kamal said, adding that during the presentation ceremony Srinivasan was booed heavily by the 93,000 strong crowd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
He said he was apprehensive about the fate of cricket in the hands of a "controversial man" like Srinivasan and praised his predecessors in the ICC, Sharad Pawar and Jagmohan Dalmiya, calling the former his "mentor" and thanking Dalmiya for supporting him.
"I am afraid what would be the fate of cricket if people like him (Srinivasan) are in charge while he is accused of so many corruption and criminal cases in his own country," Kamal said.
He said that the technology routinely used in international matches was not used in the Bangladesh-India World Cup match and the umpires repeatedly gave controversial decisions.
"I had some observations about the match on that day when there was no spider camera in the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) . . . for the first time I saw there is no spider camera in the MCG.
"I am not telling you that the umpires did it deliberately, but why the technology was not used (to negate the errors)?"
Kamal went on to say, "The ICC was the owner of the big screen in the field which displayed 'jitega bhai India jitega' (India will win brother, India will win) . . . what does it mean? Why the ICC-run scoreboard should carry the message?"
He said that despite his directive to the ICC commercial manager to remove the advertisement it remained on the screen.
Kamal was reportedly denied the honour of handing over the World Cup winners' trophy after he cited poor umpiring for Bangladesh's comprehensive loss to India in the quarter-finals of the mega event.
The ICC was forced to issue a statement to reject his charges.
Srinivasan wasn't amused after hearing the Bangladeshi's comments on record. While the former BCCI president did not say anything in public, he did express his displeasure to the ICC board members and questioned Kamal’s protest on one wrong umpiring decision, asking them to take it as an isolated case.
Kamal claimed he was asked to withdraw his comments.
"I will not withdraw the statement because it was the sentiment of 160 million people. Then they told me, ‘if you can't submit an apology or withdraw the statement, you can't present the trophy’," he said.
According to an amendment in the memorandum and articles of association of the ICC which was unanimously approved by Full Council in January 2015, it appeared that the job of handing over of trophies at global events rests on the ICC president.
The ICC president is, however, the ceremonial head while executive powers lie with the chairman. However, till 1996, the World Cup has been handed by various people and not necessarily the head of ICC.
"The main reason for my resignation is that I can't work with those who can act unconstitutionally and unlawfully," he said.
Kamal had made stinging criticism about "umpiring bias" during Bangladesh's loss to India. In that match, India's Rohit Sharma was not given out to a Rubel Hossain delivery which apparently looked a "touch and go" decision.
He insisted that he had not spoken against any country but said he was denied the opportunity of presenting the World Cup trophy for "speaking the truth".
Kamal had come close to questioning the integrity of the umpires, saying that the ICC should investigate the matter. He also questioned whether some decisions were "deliberate or not."
A day later, the ICC's chief executive, Dave Richardson, termed Kamal's criticism "unfortunate".
On arriving back in Bangladesh on Wednesday, Kamal addressed a dramatic press conference during which he asked the journalists present to suggest whether he should tender his resignation.
"Yes, you should resign," answered one of the scribes, to which Kamal replied, "Okay, I am just going to do that."
