The long-awaited Bangladesh Cricket Board vision of establishing Regional Cricket Associations is finally taking shape.
The BCB Annual General Meeting 2022 at a hotel in Dhaka Tuesday gave the approval to amend the BCB constitution and establish RCAs.
BCB president Nazmul Hasan and the board have been able to take the first step in achieving the ambition in its third term.
The BCB general body, formed by the councilors, also agreed to reform the voting rights of the Dhaka based clubs.
As per the new approved decision, all clubs in the Dhaka Premier League, 1st, 2nd and 3rd division now have the voting rights in the BCB election.
Previously only the Premier Division clubs had the rights to vote – the Super League clubs of the season had two voting rights while the bottom six had right to one vote.
Nazmul while addressing the media following the meeting informed that the board will now work on the structure of the RCAs and present to the BCB board of directors before its next meeting, which is in a month’s time.
“The AGM has approved the constitutional amendment needed to form the RCAs. There is no more issue to form the associations now,” said Nazmul.
The RCAs will involve seven divisions.
Mymensingh division will be part of Dhaka and there will be two committees.
The first will be of bigger divisions with more districts - 17 members – while divisions with less districts will form a committee of 11 members.
The BCB is yet to decide on the members who will be part of these committees and the manner in which the RCAs will operate.
Speaking of the amendment of the voting rights of the Dhaka based clubs, Nazmul said, “Before, some clubs had councillorship and some didn’t. The AGM approved equal councillorships rights to all the clubs.”
The BCB had last reformed the councillorship of Dhaka clubs ahead of the 2013 election.
The amendment had seen the Super League clubs of the season in the Dhaka Premier League awarded two councillorships while the bottom six had one.
Explaining the changes on the matter Nazmul said, “I have been part of cricket for a long time now. I was part of Abahani club and always saw competition between Abahani and Mohammedan SC. There were other clubs too but these two clubs always fought for the championship.”
“So, the changes [in 2013] were made so that there is competition among the clubs and as incentives they would get two voting rights. But now the situation has changed and the purpose has been achieved. Almost all the clubs now form good teams and want to win the championship.”
The amended constitution has now changed clause 9.2 [A], 9.2 [C] and 9.2 [D].
Each of the 12 clubs in Premier League, 20 in 1st Division, 24 in 2nd Division and 20 in 3rd Division will now have one councilor.