Players withdraw boycott, BPL to resume on Friday
Cricketers’ Welfare Association of Bangladesh withdrew its boycott late last night following a meeting with Bangladesh Cricket Board officials, opening the door for the Bangladesh Premier League to resume from today after a day of disruption triggered by a standoff between players and board.
“Keeping the greater interest of cricket in mind, we will resume playing tomorrow [today],” CWAB president Mohammad Mithun said at a joint press conference of CWAB and BCB yesterday.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Earlier in the night, CWAB had issued a press release, demanding BCB director M Najmul Islam to issue a public apology over his comments on Wednesday.
“We have informed the BCB that if he [Najmul] publicly apologises and the process regarding [removing] his directorship continues, we will be ready to return to cricket from Friday,” the press release read.
However, sources at the BCB said that the board had not agreed to the conditions set by CWAB, and was mulling postponing BPL indefinitely if the players do not agree to play.
The BCB had another meeting with CWAB members, where BPL franchise owners were also present, after which the players agreed to withdraw their boycott while the board assured them it would carry on with its procedures against Najmul.
“A few unfortunate incidents have taken place over the past two days, which is why we were unable to hold today’s BPL matches,” BCB director Iftekhar Rahman Mithu said at the press conference.
“The director who made the comments, he has been removed from his committee [finance committee]. We follow our constitution, and according to it, we have given him a show cause notice. He has been given 48 hours to respond, which will end at noon on the 17th. Then it will go to the disciplinary committee, as per the constitution and the process will continue.
“We tried to contact him throughout the day. We wanted to bring him here, but we couldn’t reach him,” he added.
CWAB president Mithun was hopeful that the board will carry on with its disciplinary procedure against Najmul.
“They have assured us that they will reach him and fulfill our demands as early as possible. They will complete our demands following the procedures as early as possible,” he said.
The BCB has already released a revised schedule for the rest of the tournament. Matches scheduled to take place on Thursday will instead take place on Friday.
The matches originally scheduled for January 16 and 17 have been shifted by a day. The Eliminator and Qualifier 1, previously scheduled to be held on January 19, have been shifted to January 20.
Earlier on the day, the players did not turn up for their previously scheduled BPL matches in Dhaka, following through on their threats on Wednesday to boycott all cricket if Najmul is not removed from the board.
On Wednesday, Najmul had told the media that players were not owed any compensation if Bangladesh do not participate in the upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, starting on February 7, arguing that the BCB has never sought refunds from cricketers after poor performances at global events.
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