The Nazmul Hasan-backed panel for the Bangladesh Cricket Board’s category-2 (Dhaka Metropolitan Clubs) directors was declared to have been elected unopposed after other aspirants backed out of the race on Monday. A total of 21 councillors had submitted their names in the category but on the last day for withdrawals, nine candidates, including BCB president Nazmul himself, withdrew their nomination papers, paving the way for his panel members.
Businessman and Gazi Tank Cricketers owner Lutfor Rahman had kept some interest alive in this otherwise one-sided election by contesting from this category, but his withdrawal left no other challengers.
There will, however, be elections in category-1 – for the Dhaka and Rajshahi divisions – and category-3, where former captains Gazi Ashraf Hossain and Khaled Mahmud are vying for one post.
The other aspirant in category-3, Jahangirnagar University’s Debobrata Paul, withdrew from the contest, leaving it a two-horse race.
The BCB’s board of executive directors is to be made up of 10 members from category-1, 12 members from
category-2 and one member from category-3, along with three government nominees.
Nazmul is expected to join the board as a part of the government quota, along with his key associate, Ismail Haider Mallick, and former vice-president Ahmed Sazadul Alam.
The trio, who are councillors from Abahani (Nazmul) Sheikh Russell Krira Chakra (Sazzadul) and Brothers Union (Mallick), had withdrawn from the category-2 race.
Mallick said being a government nominee will make Nazmul a neutral person.
‘As there was no opponent left, we asked the board president to come through the NSC [National Sports Council] quota. It will make him a neutral person for the president’s post,’ Mallick told reporters at the NSC on Monday.
-With New Age input
