The election of the Bangladesh Cricket Board plunged into a deeper crisis as divisional and district sports association members felt deeply wounded as board president Nazmul Hasan met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to discuss election related issues recently
without their knowledge despite being promised earlier.The incident literally poured cold water on the recent developments initiated by the BCB boss to bridge the gap between the two parties in order to make headway in completing the election as it has become imperative to fulfill the requirement of the International Cricket Council.
‘There is no need to play hide-and-seek,’ said an influential member of the Chittagong Divisional Sports Association to New Age on Tuesday.
‘BCB president (Nazmul) promised us that he will notify us in advance regarding every decision related to the next BCB election,’ he said.
‘This was the understanding that we got after the last meeting where it was said that the BCB election would take place through everyone’s participation,’ he said.
The BCB is running out of time to avoid a sanction by the ICC, who set a deadline for an elected body by June 2013.
In the AGM of the ICC in 2011, it was agreed that all member boards will have an independent elected body by June 2012. A further 12 months’ time (upto June 2013) was given before the ICC said it would consider sanctions.
Nazmul had already sat with the DSA members on several occasions and even promised to sign a MoU (memorandum of understanding) with them to ensure their participation in the election that is halted at present.
A decision on the issue is still pending at the Supreme Court after it stayed the order of the High Court that ruled illegal the changes made in the amended constitution as the present ad-hoc committee entrusted with the responsibility of completing an election within 90 days under the amended constitution, made several changes in the amended constitution to take the matter to court.
BCB ad-hoc committee member Ismail Haider Mallick informed that the BCB president went home straight from the PM’s house before boarding for Singapore.
‘The meeting could have been about the next election,’ said Mallick.
Earlier, members of the BCB’s ad-hoc committee admitted that the issue of the next election will be discussed in a board meeting in four days’ time on Monday with a possibility of an election date announcement, but surprisingly the meeting was called off.
-With New Age input
