In a sudden turn of events, Bangladesh national team cricket players comprising Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmdullah Riyad called for a press conference in BCB academy ground in Mirpur on Monday and announced that they will not take part in any cricketing activities unless a 11-point demand made to the cricket board is met.
The immediate impact of their action will be on the National Cricket League (NCL), currently in progress, the training camp for next month’s tour of India, and possibly the tour itself. The main demand of the players was hike in salary of cricketers when they play various domestic leagues. They wanted an improvement of the pay-package of domestic cricketers and also wanted to increase players’ opinion in cricketing matters.
This is not the first time that players have gone to the BCB asking for this issues such as overdue payments -- there have been numerous instances when individuals and at times club teams have complained of pending wages. But their issues always remained unsolved. So, for the first time players are protesting as a unified group and took matters in their own hands. Many experts commented that the points which players put up seemed justified enough.
Especially, the demand of salary increase is the most justified one. Bangladesh domestic players in first class cricket, get only Tk. 25,000 and Tk. 35,000 per match in tier 1 and tier 2 respectively, whereas domestic players of our neighboring country India gets Tk. 1.8 lac per match in Ranji Trophy (India’s first class cricket).
To start with salary hike demand, Bangladesh Test and T20 skipper Shakib Al Hasan said, “Match fee for the First-class cricket should be increased to one lakh (BDT), which is now 35 thousand only, this is our fourth demand. At the same time, the salary of first-class cricketers should be increased by 50 per cent. A first-class cricketer gets only 1500 taka as daily allowance. I don't think this is enough for a cricketer in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. At the same time, we are demanding to increase the travel allowance. We will be happy if BCB ensures air tickets for travelling for the first-class cricketers around the country.”
Another demand was, Dhaka Premier League, the domestic ODI tournament in Bangladesh, should not have salary cap. "We have been expressing our discontent for a long time. We get a very low amount as our remuneration from Dhaka League. We used to contact the clubs in our own ways previously. Now, our demand is to go back to the previous model of the Dhaka League," Mahmudullah said.
Wicket-Keeper batsman Mushfiqur Rahim raised BPL issue. He said “BPL should be conducted in franchise-style, like it was done before, not like the revised Big Bash league type format.” However, BCB has already said that this special format is only for this year.
Other notable demands were, resignation of the current president and secretary of the Cricketers Welfare Association of Bangladesh (CWAB) with immediate effect, after which Bangladesh players will select who would take over the association. An increase in the number of players in the central contract list. To have more domestic cricket tournaments, besides the one 50-over event - the Dhaka Premier League - and the T20 tournament - the Bangladesh Premier League. The players have also called for creating a calendar for domestic cricket.
These are the overall issues that the players want Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) to resolve immediately. BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury said they are yet to receive an official presentatiossn of the demand. After getting that BCB will try to resolve those issues as quickly as possible.
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