Bangladeshi players call off boycott after BCB and players’ association reach agreement
Ravi Singh
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Bangladesh’s cricketers have withdrawn their boycott after the BCB and the Cricketers’ Welfare Association of Bangladesh (CWAB) reached a resolution at a late-night meeting on Thursday. In the immediate term, the update means that the scheduled BPL matches will take place on Friday.
CWAB president Mohammad Mithun, who sat alongside BCB director Iftekhar Rahman at a press conference that began at the board premises at 11.45pm, said, “Keeping the greater interest of cricket in mind, we will resume playing tomorrow [on Friday]. They [the BCB] have assured us that they will reach out to him [BCB director M Nazmul Islam] and fulfil our demands as early as possible.”
Earlier in the evening, the CWAB had issued a press statement in which it had asked for Nazmul’s suspension as a condition for talks. The BCB removed Nazmul as the finance committee chairman, but he remains a BCB director pending a review that has been initiated by the board.
The protesting players welcomed the move, but have still asked for a public apology. ESPNcricinfo understands that the demand for the apology remains a point of contention between the CWAB and BCB president Aminul Islam.
“He [M Nazmul Islam] has been given 48 hours to respond, which will end at noon on [Saturday]. Then it will go to the disciplinary committee, as per the constitution and the process will continue”
BCB director Iftekhar Rahman
The board met BPL franchise officials before meeting the players’ representatives at around 10.30pm on Thursday.
Trouble began when, on Wednesday, Nazmul spoke disparagingly of the country’s premier players on the sidelines of a BCB prayer meeting for former prime minister Khaleda Zia.
Nazmul was asked about the potential financial implications for Bangladesh should they end up not playing in the upcoming T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka at all.
He responded by saying the board would not take a hit and that only the cricketers would, adding that there would be no compensation should they miss out. “Why [would there be]? Are we asking them for the crores and crores of taka that we are spending on them? Answer me first,” he said. “We are spending so much money on them, they are not being able to do anything. Have we got any international awards? What have we done at any level? Let us now ask them for the money back after every time they couldn’t play. Give us back. Why should there even be a question of compensating the players?”
The BCB released a statement soon after, making it clear Nazmul’s views were his alone. Expressing ” sincere regret” and that it does not “endorse or take responsibility for any statement or remark made by any director or Board member unless issued formally” through proper channels.
On Thursday night, Iftekhar called Nazmul’s comments “unfortunate”, but clarified that the board hadn’t been able to get in touch with Nazmul.
“A few unfortunate incidents have taken place over the past two days, which is why we were unable to hold today’s BPL matches. The director who made the comments, he has been removed from his committee [finance committee],” Iftekhar said. “We follow our constitution, and according to it, we have sent him a show cause notice. He has been given 48 hours to respond, which will end at noon on [Saturday]. Then it will go to the disciplinary committee, as per the constitution and the process will continue.
“We tried to contact him throughout the day. We wanted to bring him here, but we couldn’t reach him.”
