A significant week for Bangladesh cricket has begun with the International Cricket Council’s annual conference getting underway at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London on Tuesday.
The conference, which will end with the IDI Board meeting on June 29, started with the Associate and Affiliate Members’ meeting.The conference is generally considered important for all ICC members but for Bangladesh it is doubly vital as several key issues in the agenda are related with the Bangladesh Cricket Board.
Part of the conference is the governance review committee, finance and commercial affairs committee and human resources and remuneration committee which will be held on Thursday.
The meeting is expected to discuss the matter of an elected body among all ICC members, something which will not be a pleasing topic for Bangladesh.
The BCB is one of the very few member bodies that was unable to meet the ICC deadline of having an elected committee free from any government interference.
The ICC in their AGM in 2011 decided that every member country will have to have an elected body that will be exempt from any government influence by June 2013.
The BCB, which is being run by an ad-hoc committee, is currently facing a legal battle over its constitution, which they must now explain to the ICC or face a suspension.
The governance review committee meeting will follow the ICC annual conference where at least two agendas are directly related to Bangladesh cricket.
Chairman of the Anti-Corruption and Security Unit will place his report before the meeting and it is expected that Bangladesh will occupy a large part in his statement.
The ACSU report will highlight their recent investigation on the Bangladesh Premier League where at least three matches are under the cloud of suspicion. The ACSU officials visited Bangladesh at least four times since they launched the inquiry and quizzed more than 80 players and officials at home and abroad.
Former Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful already confessed publicly his involvement and chances are high that the ACSU will also report a few other names involved with the corrupt practice.
BCB president Nazmul Hasan recently said that he expected a few other players to be reported and therefore postponed the players’ recruitment programme of the forthcoming Dhaka Premier League.
The final agenda in the annual conference is the update on ICC events through to 2015, something which will also be challenging for Bangladesh, hosts of the ICC World Twenty20 next year.
Nazmul recently said that the ICC will consider an alternative host unless Bangladesh could convince them that they are well capable of preparing the venues within the stipulated period.
The ICC is clearly unhappy at Bangladesh’s preparation of the Sylhet venue, which will make its international debut with the tournament. Under the host tournament agreement, Bangladesh must hand over the venue to the ICC by October this year.
However, the development work at the Sylhet Divisional Stadium is yet to be started, which could result in the ICC selecting an alternative host for the showpiece Twenty20 event.
-With New Age input
