Prisoners, including Sri Lankans at the Dubai Central Jail have expressed disappointment over not being allowed to watch their cricket on television.

The jail authorities have said that cricket channels have been blocked to prevent the prisoners from fighting and gambling over their teams.

According to Gulf News, the prisoners, mostly from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India, have alleged that one of their inmates who is in charge of the television has blocked cricket channels with the help of the jail management, and watches his favourite football telecasts.

Lieutenant Colonel Abdul Hakeem Al Munser, Director of Dubai Jail for men at Dubai Rehabilitation and Corrective Establishment (Central Jail), denied this allegation, and claimed that the authorities had disconnected the cricket channels because the prisoners gambled over the matches.

A Sri Lankan prisoner said that cricket was his passion since childhood, and he felt bad about missing the matches.

Lt Col Al Munser said: "We have prisoners from more than 100 different nationalities and the jail management cannot afford to give a TV channel for each one of them to watch".
 

"The official TV channels show programmes in English and Arabic, but we also allow Indian TV channels from 1 pm to 5 pm," he added. (ANI)