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Cricketers’ threat

Sports Reporter
First-class cricketers have threatened to boycott the upcoming (National Cricket League (NCL) if Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) does not increase their match fees as well as reinstate the previous format of the country's lone first-class competition, during a press conference at a city hotel yesterday.
The Cricketers Welfare Association of Bangladesh (CWAB) has demanded to fix the match fee at Tk 35,000 for four-day matches. Tk 20,000 for one-day matches and Tk 10,000 for T\venty20 matches. Apart from match fees, the association also demanded reinstatement of the previous format and deferral of the league by five days to start it from January 5.
"Considering the proposals, cricketers have decided to refrain from playing the upcoming National Cricket League until their demands are met." CWAB general secretary Debobroto Paul read out from a paper at the press conference.
To ascertain cricketers' interest in different matters, we carried out a survey amongst the first-class cricketers last year and we informed the outcomes of the survey to the tournament committee chairman [Gazi Ashraf Hossain) and BCB's senior vice-president [Mahbub Anam], both of whom expressed their inability to implement our proposals. We then requested them to fix match fees
considering that of other lest playing nations and our socio-economical condition or to fix match fees in line with the number of matches first-class cricketers played. But the meeting ended without any directive or prqmise," said Paul.
"We also let them know the cricketers' disapproval of the new format. We believe that when the experts prefer to play more longer-version games in a bid to improve cricket, the introduction of a new format that will reduce the number of first-class matches will hinder the development of cricket. Later we even tried to meet the BCB president and cricket operations chairman but failed to get any response from the board." said the CWAB general secretary
CWAB president and former Bangladesh captain Naimur Rahman and country's top-cricketers Shakib /\1 Hasan, Mohammad Ashraful, Shahadat Hossain, Mahbubul Alam, Nafees Iqbal. Enamul Haque, Tushar Imran, Alok Kapali, Hannan Sarkar, Rajin Saleh, Javed Omar, Mohammad Sharif, Faisal Hossain, Tareq Aziz were present.
To make the national cricket league competitive, the game’s governing body has introduced a new format this season that has reduced the number of matches, but increased match fees a bit (Tk 12,000 from Tk 10.000). Under the new format, the finalists will play maximum nine matches while two teams, who will fail to
qualify for the Super Four, will play five matches, five less than previous home and away format.
Meanwhile, Gazi Ashraf Hossain, who is behind the introduction of the new format in a bid to bring in more competitiveness in the national league, is a representative of die cricketers in the game's governing body.
"We are not here for any movement, we have come here to request the authority concerned to meet our proposals through you because we had earlier got no promise from the board which it was very disappointing," said Naimur adding that the up and coming cricketers would lose their interest in cricket if they see no money in cricket.
Explaining the reason behind reinstating die previous format, Naimur said that the previous format featured many matches and it benefited the cricketers from earning more money though the match fees were not enough.
The CWAB president informed that most cricketers had already expressed their solidarity with their stance through signing papers.
Ashraful said, "We, who are playing in the nadonal team, will continue with our national dudes, but we will stick to our demands regarding the national league and we hope the authority will sit with us before the start of the national league," FROM PAGE 17
Shakib said, "The last season's national league was very competitive only because of the increment in the match fees and the level of competitiveness in the league will step up as match fee is increased. There is no alternative to first-class cricket if we want to improve our cricket."