Late-night meeting ends standoff, BPL resumes Friday
The Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) is resuming from today, Friday. Cricketers boycotted both the scheduled BPL matches on Thursday, demanding the resignation of BCB director M Nazmul Islam over his controversial remarks.
The two postponed matches will now be played on Friday, BPL Governing Council Member Secretary Iftekhar Rahman announced.
He made the announcement at a press conference at the BCB office on Gulshan’s Navana Tower, alongside Cricketers Welfare Association of Bangladesh (CWAB) president Mohammad Mithun.
At the same press conference, Mithun apologised to spectators for the inconvenience caused by the suspension of matches on Thursday.
Earlier around 8:00 pm, BCB officials held a meeting with representatives of the BPL franchises. Later around 10:30 pm, the cricketers also arrived at Navana Tower. The decision to resume BPL was announced following discussions with them.
On Thursday afternoon, Chattogram Royals were scheduled to play Noakhali Express, followed in the evening by the match between Rajshahi Warriors and Sylhet Titans. These two matches will now be held on Friday at 2:00 pm and 7:00 pm respectively.
Matches originally scheduled for Friday will be played on Saturday, while Saturday’s fixtures have been moved to Saturday, 18 January. Spectators who purchased tickets for Thursday’s matches may seek a refund through the GoBCBTicket website (https://www.gobcbticket.com.bd/en).
Meanwhile, the eliminator and qualifier 1, originally scheduled for 19 January, have been rescheduled for 20 January. The dates for Qualifier 2 and the final remain unchanged.
The controversy arose after M Nazmul Islam, head of the finance committee at BCB, made remarks about whether players would be compensated if Bangladesh did not participate in the World Cup in India. Cricketers had set a deadline until Thursday afternoon for his resignation as a director, but he did not step down.
Later in the afternoon, the BCB removed Nazmul from his position as head of the finance committee. In a press release, CWAB welcomed the decision but said Nazmul must publicly apologise for his remarks. The BCB declined to accept that demand.
Despite the apology issue remaining unresolved, CWAB president Mithun announced the decision to return to play saying, “In the interest of cricket, we are returning to the field from tomorrow. We have had constructive discussions with the cricket board. Through dialogue, we have reached a point that has been accepted by all CWAB members and the players’ representatives who were present.”
At the press conference, BCB director Iftekhar Rahman said Nazmul could not be contacted despite attempts to reach him. However, he has been asked to respond within 48 hours to a show-cause notice issued earlier in the day, after which the disciplinary process against him will continue.
CWAB president Mohammad Mithun added, “As he cannot be reached at the moment, the board has assured us that they will contact him as soon as possible and fulfill our demands. They will address our concerns promptly in line with their procedures.”
Earlier in the day, during a CWAB press conference, cricketers also cited four additional reasons for the boycott.
These included resolving the ongoing crisis in Dhaka cricket, addressing allegations of sexual harassment in women’s cricket, improving facilities and benefits for players, and ending the practice of imposing undeclared bans on cricketers accused of fixing.
The players said they had received assurances that swift action would be taken on these issues as well.