Former national captain Akram Khan was appointed the new cricket operations chief as the Bangladesh Cricket Board reorganised its standing committees in the second meeting of the newly-elected board of directors on Wednesday. Akram replaces Enayet Hossain Siraj, who served the committee for the last five years. The cricket operations committee looks after national team-related activities, evaluates the performance of the coaches and the selectors, and liaises with other national boards for scheduling.
Akram, who left the chief selector post to pursue his goal of becoming a board director, was always expected to take the role because of his experience on and off the field.
‘We will act as a team,’ Akram, who clashed with the cricket operations committee on several occasions as a selector, told New Age on Wednesday.
‘I am happy because it is not something very new to me,’ he said.
‘It is same line where I had worked so far and that gives me the confidence that I will able to put up my mark.’
In another significant change, the head of the Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metropolis will be an organiser who hails
from Chittagong and was elected to the BCB as a representative of the Chittagong District Sports Association.
AZM Nasir, who is also the Brothers Union cricket committee chairman, was chosen as there were no other candidates for the post, which often faces the wrath of bickering Dhaka clubs.
BCB president Nazmul Hasan said that the committees will be run for six months before the board evaluate their performances.
‘Earlier the committees were not given a certain time frame, but we decided to do so to evaluate their performance,’ said Nazmul.
‘Changes can be made if they fail to perform, as that will be the only criterion that we will be looking after,’ he added.
Former national captain Naimur Rahman was removed from the tournament committee for his apparent poor performance for the last year and a half. Gazi Golam Murtoza replaces him in the post, with Naimur taking responsibility for the age-level teams.
Significantly, the BCB did not make former senior vice-president Mahbub Anam and vice-president Ahmed Sazzadul Alam the chairmen of any standing committees despite being elected directors.
BCB insiders said they could, however, be accommodated in the working committee, the only standing committee yet to have its chairman named.
Siraj, who led the cricket operations committee and the women’s wing during the time of the Nazmul Hasan-led ad hoc committee, was also not given a committee to head.
-With New Age input
