Players announce league boycott, BCB blamed for entire fiasco
The forthcoming Dhaka Premier League plunged into deep crisis after the players decided to boycott it unless their certain demands, including the scrapping
of the proposed gradation system, are met.
The boycott decision came from a gathering of local cricketers at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium under the banner of Cricketers Welfare Association of Bangladesh.
National players, who earlier moved separately on the issue, also joined the gathering after their training session at the gymnasium ended.
Former national player Rajin Saleh read out a statement announcing the demands, which also included payment of players’ Bangladesh Premier League dues.
‘We learnt through the media that the traditional players’ transfer system is replaced and a gradation and rotational policy is introduced that is totally one-sided,’ said the statement.
‘It will not only force us to suffer huge financial losses, but we will also lose our freedom to choose the team, which cannot be acceptable,’ the statement added.
Unless the dues of the BPL are paid and the old player’ transfer reverted to old system no player of the national team, Bangladesh A team, Academy side and first-class cricketer will participate in the league,’ he said.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board announced a gradation system this year, bowing down to the pressure of clubs, who alleged that the players had asked for too much money in the league.
The clubs also proposed a price tag for each grade with top players set to get a maximum Tk 20-22 lakh. The CWAB was initially soft towards the gradation system though it argued that the price of the top grade should be from Tk 30 lakh to Tk 35 lakh.
The Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metropolis was unable to convince the clubs about the players’ demand and rescheduled the league on Sunday on the pretext of preparing the bylaws.
However, the players, who had been waiting for the league to start since March, finally removed their all differences to unite under their common platform CWAB and took the hard-line.
‘We gave our observations to the CCDM in a letter, but they never replied. We got to know it from the media that they will start gradation and rotation policy,’ CWAB general secretary Debabrata Paul told reporters at Mirpur.
‘We didn’t get any response to our proposals, so today [Monday] we took a decision after speaking to the players,’ he said.
Debabrata cleverly avoided speaking against the clubs and shifted the blame entirely on the BCB for the saga.
‘They [the BCB] are destroying the tradition of the Premier League, which is not helping anyone, especially the players.
‘The BCB never sat with us, so we don’t really know where our differences are,’ said Paul, adding that there was no formal discussion between the BCB and his body on the issue.
‘We are not going to speak about the clubs. We feel since the BCB is the organising body of the Dhaka Premier League, it is their prerogative to accept or reject the proposals they were given.
‘We told the CCDM that we should all sit together – the clubs, players, BCB, CCDM – and find a solution. But there was no indication of a coordinated effort.
‘The BCB has to take the responsibility.’
Debabrata also brushed aside the suggestion that all players, who are under the national contract, are bound to play every competition if the BCB wants them to play.
BCB acting chief executive officer Nizamuddin Chowdhury said that they will not move on the issue unless they receive the players’ decision formally.
‘We haven’t received the players’ decision formally. We will discuss the situation once we receive it,’ he said. ‘Otherwise we have set a tentative date for the Premier League to start, which is July 3.
‘This is not a private tournament. This is a domestic competition, run by the CCDM which is a standing committee of the BCB, so I think the national players have an obligation to play in it,’ he added.
-With New Age input
