Nazmul Hassan ready to resign from BCB

Nazmul Hassan is ready to resign from the post of Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president. He informed a top BCB director over the phone from abroad about his wish. It is assumed that he went to London following the fall of the Awami League government.

A BCB source said some seven to eight of the currently active directors sat yesterday, Wednesday to decide their next course of action. It was in this meeting that a director disclosed Nazmul Hassan’s wish to resign.

Wishing to remain anonymous, a BCB director told this correspondent on Thursday that Nazmul has agreed to resign to open the chance to restructure BCB. However, as per the constitution, he will have to inform the board about his decision to resign in writing. Then it will have to be approved in the board meeting.

However, the board meeting has to be called by president Nazmul Hassan himself, which he can do from abroad and he already assured the board of directors in this regard. The board president can call a board meeting through the chief executive officer and can choose one of the board directors to preside over the meeting in his absence. The board directors also can propose someone among them to preside over the meeting in the absence of board president. This meeting will be called once the BCB president sends his official resignation letter.

In the meeting on Wednesday, some of the board directors said although the BCB had an elected board of directors, it won’t be able to work going against the decisions of the interim government. So they need specific directives from the government. They all agreed that they all would resign if the government wanted.

However, it was also discussed in the meeting that a reshuffle in the board may have an impact on arranging the upcoming Women’s T20 World Cup. Besides, resignation of all board directors at once may convey a wrong message to the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the international cricket community which could foil the arrangements of Bangladesh for the upcoming Women’s T20 World Cup. So the board directors feel they need to consult the government in this regard.

The ICC will take the final decision regarding whether the World Cup will be held in Bangladesh or anywhere else on 20 August.

Earlier, on 11 August, the board of directors met Asif Mahmud, advisor for the youth and sports ministry. The advisor asked the BCB officials to look for what could be done within the ICC framework.

Speaking to the newspersons after the meeting, advisor Asif Mahmud said, “BCB is a federation under the ICC. So, we cannot take any decision regarding this. The BCB directors will see what could be done within the legal framework of the ICC. They will inform us later whether it is possible to appoint somebody for the interim period.”

Nazmul Hassan took charge of the BCB as the government nominated president in 2012. He was elected the president in October 2012. He has been serving as the president for three consecutive terms since then.