Bangladesh’s cricket board lashed out at the players who hatched a “conspiracy” to destabilise the game in the country by striking, while an international federation of players’ associations came out in support of the action yesterday.
The country’s top players led by national captain Shakib Al Hasan went on strike on Monday demanding better pay and conditions, putting the side’s planned tour of India from Nov. 3 in doubt. Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) President Nazmul Hassan said the board was open to discussions, but he criticised the players and said the administrators would try to find out who instigated the strike. “This is shocking. I can’t even imagine that our players can do something like this,” Hassan said. “We’ll find who is behind this conspiracy,” he said.
As well as hefty pay increases, players are demanding a return to a franchise-based model in the Bangladesh Premier League. “If they don’t want to play, they won’t. What will you gain if you don’t play? I don’t understand why you have to stop playing for the demands,” Hassan said. “If anyone wants to talk, the doors are open for them,” he said, adding that players were not answering calls. 
Hassan said that the India tour will proceed as per plan. “I hope that the camp will go on. The India series will take place. I believe that most of the players want to play. They want cricket to develop. I don’t believe that they will bring the country’s cricket into disrepute due to a small sum of money. But we will see what happens,” he said.
The BCB president, however, did not reveal plans about their next course of action after an unofficial meeting in Mirpur. “What I want to see and know first is who goes to play and who doesn’t. Whether they will go to camp or not. First, I have to know who is trying to jeopardise the India tour. I have to know what the real problem is or else there will be other problems a few days later.”
While their strike does put a question mark on their upcoming tour of India, BCCI President-elect Sourav Ganguly is confident that the players will sort out the issue with the board and the series won’t be affected. “It is their internal matter, but they will sort out, they will come,” Ganguly said when asked if there was any threat to the series.
Asked if he would be speaking to the BCB in his capacity as BCCI President, Ganguly said it is an internal matter. “It is their internal matter. I speak to the BCB, but this doesn’t come under me,” he explained. But the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA) backed the players yesterday, commending them for “taking a stand together”.
“It is a clear indication of the need for change in the way players are treated in what we regard as an important cricket country,” FICA Executive Chairman Tony Irish said in a statement. “It is also clear to us that the players in Bangladesh don’t feel heard or respected in relation to important issues that affect them in their careers and that affect their livelihoods.”
The players’ body is also unhappy with the role played by the Cricketers’ Welfare Association of Bangladesh (CWAB) and plans to review its membership of FICA. “It is of further concern that it appears that office bearers of CWAB hold positions with the Bangladesh Cricket Board,” Irish said.


Corruption claim 
deepens Bangladesh 
cricket crisis after strike
Meanwhile, a former Bangladesh cricket chief said that match fixing was widespread in the country. Former Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Saber Hossain Chowdhury, a British-educated lawyer, businessman and now member of parliament, said corruption was deep-rooted at the governing body, AFP reported.
“@BCBtigers is only national sporting body in the world that promotes institutionalised #matchfixing, #corruption,” he said on his Twitter account, adding: “Unbelievable!!” “Flagged this issue many times myself,” he said.
Shakib had raised concerns about corruption in domestic cricket on Monday when announcing that most of the country’s professional players had started a strike to press for better pay and benefits. “We all know the sorry state of our first, second and third division cricket,” Shakib said. “A lot of the times we know which team will win and which team will lose before the match starts.” 
The strike comes amid growing criticism of the BCB from cricketers who say the governing body is not sharing enough of its growing wealth. Local cricketers want Bangladesh players and coaches to be paid more in line with foreign hires.
They have demanded a 50% pay hike for first-class players, the expansion of national pay contracts, increased match fees in domestic games and better benefits for support staff. Allegations of match fixing and corruption in Bangladesh cricket are not new, and in 2014 the entire Bangladesh Premier League T20 contest was suspended under a graft cloud.
In another notorious case in 2017, authorities banned a bowler for 10 years after he delivered a succession of wides and no-balls to concede 92 runs to deliberately lose a match in what his team called a protest against biased umpiring.
That Dhaka League Second Division game raised suspicions after a Lalmatia bowler sent down 13 wides and three no-balls in the first over — all of which raced to the boundary — costing his side 80 runs. Lalmatia had earlier been dismissed for just 88 off 14 overs before opponents Axiom reached 92-0 off just four legal deliveries.
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