Former Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president AHM Mostofa Kamal who became the first ever Bangladeshi to head the International Cricket Council (ICC) after he was officially given the charge of the cricket’s governing body at its annual conference in Melbourne recently, received a warm reception from the BCB directors and former players when he arrived at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport yesterday.
Interestingly, the former BCB president sounded critical of the velocity of the players’ getting married when he commented, ‘You call this Shakib, Tamim, Mashrafe and Mushfiq bad. Their problem is six of them queue up together to get married if one gets married.”
The former BCB boss, however, did not forget to raise questions over the recent lackluster performance of the Bangladesh team and the cricketers, and blamed the media for ruining the cricketers as they are more involved in shooting for TV commercials rather than practicing.
The ICC president also opined that the authorities should be stronger and warned if nepotism in cricket continues, it will not usher in good result for the nation. “Listen, if you have uncles-nephews and other relatives involved in cricket, it will cause a bad impact on Bangladesh cricket. We have to be strong and disciplined, and if New Zealand and West Indies can do so then why not Bangladesh? We have beaten New Zealand and West Indies so many times before,” he said.
The first ICC president from Bangladesh further warned that this achievement of his would go in vain if Bangladesh fail to produce better cricket on the field.
Kamal became the eleventh ICC president in the annual conference in Melbourne and will be at the helm for twelve months. The new ICC president, however, expressed his intentions as the new president of ICC upon arrival.
“I will work for cricket in the next one year and as I am now the president of ICC, I can’t work only for a specific country. I am an optimistic individual and I believe cricket will reach its ultimate goal. May be we are yet to achieve that under the new management but I hope we can,” said Kamal.
Kamal said he is happy with the role, “The president’s title is really good for me. It is an ornamental post. I will speak in conferences, give awards in tournaments and chair the ICC’s annual conference. Then after my time is up, I will hand it over to the next president,” he said.
