RU protest against umpires

Over two thousand people, comprising of teachers and students from different disciplines under the banner of "Rajshahi University Cricket Fans" yesterday protested the controversial umpiring decisions during Bangladesh-India World Cup quarterfinal match by setting fire to effigies of the three umpires -- Aleem Dar, Ian Gould and third umpire Steve Davis.

After parading through different roads of the campus, they set fire to the effigies at 12:45pm. A human chain was formed in front of Rajshahi University's central library at 12:20pm. Later, they brought out a protest procession on campus demanding punishment of the umpires.

The speakers alleged that the three umpires have to bear sole responsibility for cheating the Bangladesh cricket team. They also demanded permanent expulsion of those umpires from the International Cricket Council.

Mahfuz Munna, a key organiser of the protest programme and a second year student of Marketing department, said that due to the extreme commercialisation of cricket, such types of 'heinous activities' were committed by the umpires and they must not be acceptable under any circumstances.