BCB president AHM Mustafa Kamal came down heavily on Cricketers' Welfare Association of Bangladesh (CWAB) and two national players Mohammad Ashraful and Shakib Al Hasan who raised their voices in favour of the campaign boycotting the National Cricket League (NCL).

After an emergency board meeting yesterday, which was called to discuss the crisis over the country's lone first-class competition, the BCB boss informed the press that they have decided to defer the competition which will now start from January 13 instead of today but in the same changed format and as per announced match fees.

In a major change, the BCB has also decided to shift the responsibility to the respective divisional authorities to run the team. "Now the league will start from January 13 and in same format and budget and the teams will be delivered by the divisional authorities and we will fix the terms and conditions with the divisional sports authorities very soon," said Kamal.

BCB president was not ready to recog-

nise the CWAB as a party to mediate between the players and the board and he also issued a warning against the players by saying that they will take a tough stance to restore the discipline.

BCB took the decision after the first-class cricketers turned down the appeal to join the camp as they threatened to boycott the competition if the board doesn't increase their match fees as well as reinstate the previous format and they have also demanded to defer the competition by four/ five days.

Without mentioning CWAB's name, BCB president said: "We can't bow to this kind of organisation. My door is always open but we can't talk with any bargaining agent. Cricket board can't recognise this kind of organisation and BCB has the sole authority to look after the interest of the players. And I want to make it clear that national interest is first to us. "

"The recent activities of some quarters tarnished our image internationally and we can't accept it. There are some politics behind the recent happenings but we must say there is no scope to play with the country's image," he added.

He also said that they will take action against two national players who

breached the code of conduct by raising their voices against the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB).

"We will first talk with them to know about their version and then definitely take action. Discipline is very important for any organisation and there is no scope to consider how big a player is before taking any decision in this regard.

'We were a little bit flexible in the past as we also showed against the ICL-retumees but fromnowonwe will not showany mercy in discipline issue, "saidtheBCBboss.

BCB senior vice-president Mahbubul Anam and tournament committee chairman Gazi Ashraf explained the reasons behind the change of the format and defended the current match fees.

"Our focus is to ensure the quality of the game not quantity," saidAnam.

CWAB president and former national skipper Naimur Rahman in his reaction to the board tough stance said that they would sit with the players today and after that set the next course of action.

"It's unfortunate the way board reacted over the issue. We will sit with the players tomorrow and then let you know what would be our next course of action," said Naimur.