Board still in two minds about election

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is under pressure to form an elected body in line with the ICC’s rules before all Test playing nation’s Boards take part in an annual general meeting at Lord’s on June 26, but President Nazmul Hasan told the media yesterday that the Board is still in two minds about the need for such an election. “We need a constitution to run the election, and I have two at the moment – from 2008 and 2012. The latter constitution was sent to the BCB ad-hoc committee by the National Sports Council. But since this 2012 draft is with the court, our election is being delayed,” explained Nazmul. Nazmul added that the last Board had changed the constitution without approval from the National Sports Council (NSC), and that constitution did not abide by the rules and regulations of the ICC. “We had to change the constitution to follow ICC guidelines, so that’s how the 2012 draft came about. If we do the election based on the 2008 book, we have to do another based on the ICC guidelines after 10-15 days. If we don’t do the election according to ICC’s guideline, Bangladesh stands to lose its ICC membership,” said the president. Nazmul added that the information contained in former BCB director Mobassher Hossain’s letter to the ICC did not follow established laws and that the ICC had not raised any objection to the constitution of 2012. “The ICC is fully satisfied with the constitution. The election won’t take place before the Lord’s meeting. But the ICC are supposed to vet the constitution, so until then we will wait,” informed Nazmul. The BCB president also raised questions about the actions of the previous Board, who failed to gather official approval of the 2008 constitution from the NSC. He said, “The previous Board was supposed to take approval on the constitution from the NSC. But they didn’t, so who will make the changes on the draft? The NSC or the ad-hoc committee? The court hasn’t questioned any of the changes, they just said the process was wrong.  “The court could say that the 2008 constitution is valid, but in that case, Bangladesh will lose its ICC membership. I don’t want to say anything against the court. You can call it a failure. If I do the election by disregarding the court’s decision, will you call it successful?” On a different topic, Nazmul was evasive regarding the issue of outstanding payments from the last Bangladesh Premier League. “We ensured that the players will receive their payments if the franchisees are unable to pay their dues, but why so many questions are being raised, I don’t have any idea,” said Nazmul. Nazmul also talked about the issue of payment due to Game On Sports. He said that the issue was still being worked out and the Board would not compromise on the matter.