New leadership sought to make the body effective
The Cricketers Welfare Association of Bangladesh will finally have an election on December 13 after much criticism of its organisational structure, which had made it a largely ineffective body.
The decision to hold the election was announced on Thursday, with a three-member panel headed by former coach Jalal Ahmed Chowdhury being appointed to conduct the poll. The other members of the panel are former cricketers Abdul Karim Jewel and Saidul Islam Effie.
This will be the first election for CAWB, the sole representative body for professional cricketers in Bangladesh, which has hardly played a significant role during different player-related crises in the past few years.
A selected committee ran the body over the past few years, but the multiple roles of top officials, which often raised conflicts of interest, turned it into a briefcase organisation.
Naimur Rahman, the CWAB president for the last four years, was involved with the Bangladesh Cricket Board in many capacities over that time but was hardly seen raising his voice in the interest of cricketers.
His role was brought into serious question during the recent crisis over the Dhaka Premier League, which saw players struggling to convince the BCB to start the competition and retain the usual pay structure.
While the BCB did finally convince the clubs to play the league, it had to abandon the traditional transfer system and introduce a new pay structure, which could be called bizarre at best.
Naimur represented all three major stakeholders involved in the crisis as a member of the BCB ad hoc committee, the president of an involved club and the president of CWAB.
His multiple posts effectively led him to play no role in the crisis, prompting the call for a change in the CWAB leadership.
Naimur, who is now a BCB director, has no bar in seeking a fresh term as CWAB president, said CWAB secretary Debabrata Paul on Thursday, though he believe it would be unethical.
‘Anyone cricketer, current or former, would be able to contest in the election if he is not employed by the BCB,’ said Debabrata. ‘Directors are not paid by the BCB, so they can also contest. But I think ethically it will not be a right decision.’
Debabrata said they are yet to finalise the voter list for the election, as many cricketers are not members.
‘Our door is open for all cricketers,’ he said. ‘Though we will start the election process within a day or two, national and first-class cricketers would be able to put their name in the voter list up to December 10.
‘They can even put their names in the list even an hour before the voting provided the election commission allow them.
‘The process is closed for first division or second division cricketers as we don’t know too many of them, but national and first-class players do not need any special identity,’ he said.
As per the election schedule, the nomination papers will be sold on November 30 and can be submitted up to December 2. The final list of candidates will be published on December 6, a week before the voting.
-With New Age input
