How Nazmul Hassan became ‘invincible’ in BCB

If cricket had life, then it would have been fed up by this time in Bangladesh. It would say, “I am being burnt to ashes in your love. Please let me be free.”

Cricket was trapped in the 'love' of the directors of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) itself. They had been controlling cricket operations in the country for a long time. However, most of them are out of the scene since the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government. Even BCB president Nazmul Hasan himself, who couldn’t leave the cricket board for his ‘love’ for the game, has left the country. As if they have no commitment towards their ‘love’!

However, the country’s cricket has been mired in corruption, nepotism and misuse of power due to the pressure of ‘love’ of people like Nazmul Hassan in the board, which made the future of our cricketers uncertain.

Nazmul Hassan took over as the government nominated BCB president in 2012. However, he had to secure the post through an election in 2013 due to some ICC (International Cricket Council) obligations. He won two other elections later and still holds the post.

However, the plot of the BCB election is set in a way that most of the elected directors of the board are like minded. The presidential election turned into a mere formality as the board of directors elects the president.

Besides, Nazmul Hassan, son of late president Zillur Rahman, has a close family tie with former prime minister Sheikh Hasina. Therefore, no one in the BCB board of directors dared contest him for the post. And Nazmul made the most of this advantage.

The root of Bangladesh cricket is the domestic cricket which was sort of completely destroyed during the 12 year reign of BCB president Nazmul Hassan and his board. The highly controversial Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), the lone franchise league in the country, is yet to get any professional structure.

The frustrating performance of the Bangladesh national team is evident due to the fact that the first class cricket is quite substandard in our country as compared to other cricket playing nations. And the Dhaka Premier League now is only a weapon of BCB elections.

The entry fee for the third tier cricket league was raised to Tk 500,000 from Tk 100,000 in 2014. It ruined the basic purpose of the league. Before that, around 50-60 academy level cricket teams used to take part in the third division cricket league every season. And around 1,000-1,200 rising cricketers used to get the chance to showcase the first spark of their talent.

This league used to keep the club cricket thriving and the pipeline of the cricketers strong. There was no other platform which gave this many rising cricketers to compete against each other except the school cricket. The platform doesn’t exist anymore.

The more the players take part in a tournament the more is the chance of getting rising stars. However, following the rise of the entry fee, each of the academy teams refrained from taking part in the league. These locality based teams hardly have a budget of Tk 500,000 for the entire year.

To ensure the layoff of these small teams the BCB became stricter. They imposed a condition that no club or academy would be allowed to take part in the third division without the registration at the social welfare directorate.

Taking the advantage of other academies refraining from joining the league, two clubs owned by persons relevant to the cricket board have been promoted to the third division without even playing. The champions and runners up of the third division cricket league was finalised through the toss and sometimes with a ‘final match’ to maintain formality.

As a result of having no competitive tournament, the academy level players drop out even before getting the chance to show their talent.

The main goal of having two of their own clubs in the third division is to remain ahead in the vote politics. One must win the vote to have an influence on ‘beloved’ cricket. And to do that one must have the support of the voters.

According to the latest amendment of the BCB constitution, out of the 189 BCB councillors, 76 are from different clubs in Dhaka. The remaining comes from district and divisional level sports organisations.

As most of the councillors at the district and divisional levels have political affiliations, they usually support the persons in the chair. So it’s the club councillors who decide the final result of the BCB election.

After fulfilling their goal of bringing all clubs under their own umbrella, a new rule of equal councillorship was introduced. Before 2022, the top six premier league clubs used to have 2 councillorships and the remaining clubs used to have one councillorship each.

The number of councillorships was fixed in the other cricket leagues in Dhaka. To ensure votes in their favour, it was important to keep their clubs at the top of the point table.

Nazmul Hassan’s board introduced partiality in umpiring and match fixing to ensure that. Cricketers have been used as pawns for the politics of power, the power to keep them ‘invincible’ in the arena of their ‘beloved’ cricket.

* This report appeared on the print and online versions of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten in English by Ashish Basu