Cricket Balls
Too many balls for the umpire to count?Reuters

The Bangladesh Premier Leagues 2017 has courted controversy after Kamrul Islam had to bowl seven balls in an over during Sylhet Sixers clash against Rangpur Riders. The Sixers have registered a complaint with the BPL Governing Council against umpire Mahfuzur Rahman for the entire episode.

The complaint was lodged only after the third umpire asked for a written complaint on the matter. 

"We have lodged a complaint. Our captain (Nasir Hossain) pointed out the error during the match on the field. The third umpire cross-checked and told us to lodge a written complaint," said Sylhet media manager Tamzidul Islam in press conference.

Also Read

The incident took place in the 16th over of the match, which was bowled by Islam. One wonders how an umpire can allow a bowler to ball seven balls in an over. What makes the case even more curious is the fact that Rabbi had reminded the umpire about the extra delivery but was asked to bowl.

"Rabbi bowled an extra ball in the 17th (16th) over. Rabbi reminded the umpire of the number of balls before bowling the extra delivery, but that did not change anything. I don't know if the umpire checked with the third umpire at the time; I was not at the scene at the time," "dailystar.net" quoted Nabil Samad, Sylhet's bowler as saying.

The last two balls, which happened to be the sixth and the seventh ball of the over, was bowled to Ravi Bopara.

To make things worse for Sixers, they also lost their game against the Riders. The Sixers started the BPL 2017 strongly, winning some straight matches, but failed to maintain that consistency and are struggling in the competition now.