In an unfortunate turn of events, a heated exchange took place between players during a match in the ongoing "Celebrity Cricket League" (CCL) held at Shaheed Suhrawardi Indoor Stadium in Mirpur, the capital city.
The event, organized primarily to boost morale for the upcoming World Cup, saw tensions escalate between members of the teams led by director Mohammad Mostafa Kamal Raz and director Dipankar Dipon.
Tension arose between the two teams' players on the field. When the situation seemed to calm down the game resumed. However, after the match ended, around 11pm, the players of both teams became agitated again. At one point, it escalated into a physical altercation.
Actress Raj Ripa raised allegations, stating that she was harassed and beaten by director Raz and actor Shariful Raj.
In a choked voice, actress Raj Ripa said, "We arrived before 12am. The match had been delayed three hours. Raihan Rafi was keeping our game on hold. Because we had good players, they won't step onto their field. The management was listening to Rafi. We were allowing the players to step onto the field according to that decision of the management."
The physical altercation resulted in injuries to several players, including Shishir Sardar, Raj Ripa, Joy Chowdhury, Atikur Rahman and more. They have been admitted to the National Orthopedic Hospital in Dhaka for treatment.
Actor Joy Chowdhury, a player of Dipankar Dipon's team, said that director Raz also threatened to kill actor Manoj Pramanik. Apart from this, he accused the organisers of fixing the match.
However, the director Dipon and the organizers informed that they will give an official statement and explanation on this matter.
On the other hand, director Mustafa Kamal Raz and his team members left the field after getting involved in the fight. Therefore, none of them could comment on these allegations.
Earlier, Raz's team won the toss and went into bat. They collected 119 runs in six overs. Batting to chase the target, Dipon's team managed to score 112 runs in the allotted overs. As a result they lost by 7 runs.
It should be noted that the 'Celebrity Cricket League' started for the first time last Thursday with the country's showbiz stars.
