The dog ate my cricket bat

'Never before in the history of cockamamy excuses has a player offered up anything quite as lame as Abdul Razzaq's reason for missing a match. Due to fly to Mirpur for Abahani's Premier Division Cricket League match against Gazi Tank, Razzaq got as far as the airport when his phone rang. It was, he says, an anonymous tip-off that the match had been called off because of the Eid holiday. So he cancelled his ticket, turned around and went home. The only problem being that it wasn't true.

"What we learnt is that someone from Dhaka, in the name of an Abahani official, gave him a call and told that the league matches will resume after the Eid vacation and that's why he cancelled his ticket," said a genuine club official. "He took the decision from the airport but surprisingly he didn't even check with the agent."'

- Andy Bull, 'The Spin' cricket newsletter, 24 November 2009