BCB adamant to restore order in BPL

Bangladesh Cricket Board’s (BCB) board of directors had an unofficial meeting at Dhaka’s Westin Hotel on Friday, where around 20 out of the 25 directors were reportedly present.

The agenda behind this sudden meeting was restoring order in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League (BPL).

In the meeting, headed by BCB president Nazmul Hassan, the directors discussed controversies that are plaguing the ongoing edition of BPL like- players’ misconduct, umpires and match referees inaction and advertisements of betting related organisations being shown in the television and online broadcast of the matches.

The BCB chief refused to speak with the press about the contents of the meeting. The board’s chief executive Nizam Uddin Chowdhury spoke with the media after the meeting but didn’t dive into any details.

A director, seeking anonymity, said that the main topic of discussion was Shakib Al Hasan’s controversial actions before and during the BPL. Before the tournament began, he blasted BPL for its disorganisation and said, if made BPL’s CEO, he would fix all the problems within two months.

Shakib, who is captaining Fortune Barishal in BPL9, also had confrontations with on-field umpires in his first two matches of the tournament. He was fined 15 per cent of his match fee by match referee Akhtar Ahmad for running onto the field without the umpire’s permission and then having a heated debate during the match against Rangpur Riders.

Barishal opener Anamul Haque and Rangpur captain Nurul Hasan were also slapped a 15 per cent fine in the same match.

In the meeting, the BCB president and the directors said that Shakib was given a light penalty for a big offence. They felt that the match referee should’ve handed him a tougher punishment. Some also felt that Anamul too got off easy. The directors also questioned the inaction of the BPL standing committee.

Match referees and umpires have been instructed to be stricter to maintain order in the rest of the tournament. The umpires have been given assurance that they will be backed by the board.

BCB has also instructed the BPL governing council to send a letter to the tournament’s broadcaster and tell them to stop showing advertisements of betting related companies.

However, another source said that the governing council had already cautioned the broadcasters about the advertisements, to no avail.