Sports ministry joint-secretary Abdur Rahman named chief election commissioner
The National Sports Council on Wednesday formed a three-member election commission with sports ministry joint-secretary Abdur Rahman as its head for the forthcoming election of the Bangladesh Cricket Board as the nomination of the councillors were completed earlier.
A senior official at the sports ministry said they want to complete the BCB election in the quickest possible time and has already selected two others officials, Shishir Kumar Roy and Rezaul Mustafa Kamal, to assist the chief election commissioner.
Nur Mohammad, the former IGP who is currently serving as the secretary of the ministry of youth and sport, confirmed the appointment of Rahman and other officials.
‘A few hours back we talked with Rahman and asked him to complete the election immediately,’ Nur told New Age on Wednesday. ‘We are hopeful of completing the election to
the BCB before the Eid-ul-Azha vacation providing there is no legal issue to deal with.’
Touhid Islam, the personal assistant to BCB president Nazmul Hasan, said that the preliminary list of the councillors will be announced today before the media ahead of an executive committee meeting.
The list which is being compiled, however, has already created a storm with allegations and counter-allegations being made by the officials of different clubs, districts, divisions and other affiliated bodies.
On Wednesday, the talk of the town was the list of councillors nominated by the NSC, which opted for some little known oganisers and players, among others, for the 15 councillors it is entitled to name in the orgnisers and players’ quota.
The five organisers named by NSC included the president of Victoria Sporting Club Shawkat Ali Khan Jahangir and general secretary Nesar Uddin Kajal, who were apparently rewarded for the sacrifice they made for BCB president Nazmul.
Victoria surprisingly nominated two businessmen ,Azizur Rahman and Mohammad Zahir, as their councillors who are reportedly loyal to Nazmul. It was alleged that Victoria had received huge cash for their dramatic decision and as an additional reward Jahangir and Kajol were given BCB councillorship.
The three other NSC councillors are Chittagong press club president Ali Abbas, Mohammedan Sporting Club’s finance committee chairman Monjur Alam Monju and former umpire Sailab Hossain Tutul.
The NSC has nominated ASM Faruk., Asaduzzaman Misha, Gazi Ashraf Hossain, Shahedur Rahman, Khaled Mahmud, Ahsanullah Khan, Hannan Sarker, Selim Shahed, Niamur Rashid and Mohammad Ali as councillors in the players’ quota.
Of the 10 players, Ahsanullah and Mohammad Ali have never represented Bangladesh at any level, which raised a question about their selection.
NSC secretary Shibnath Roy, however, defended the selection saying that they had taken opinions of many senior organisers before finalising the names.
‘We received many requests for councillorship and obviously considered a few names. But to be quite frank no one from the Board influenced us in
this regard,’ Roy told New Age.
‘We took the opinion of many organisers and senior officials and everybody gave their inputs. It was not entirely my decision,’ he said.
In another quota, NSC nominated five former national captains – Shamim Kabir, Shafiqul Haque Heera, ASM Roqibul Hassan, Faruque Ahmed and Khaled Mashud – as councillors. The five ex-captains, however, are not eligible to contest in the election according to new BCB constitution.
-With New Age input