Bangladesh cricketers have demanded arrangements be made to share a portion of the revenue generated by Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and pay female players fairly.
At a press conference in Dhaka on Wednesday (Oct 23), the players placed their demands hours after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina held a discussion with BCB President Nazmul Hasan and Cricketers’ Welfare Association of Bangladesh President Naimur Rahman Durjoy at Ganabhaban over the ongoing crisis.
Supreme court lawyer Mustafizur Rahman, who represent the protesting players, read out the 13-point demand placed by the cricketers.
A copy of their ‘Charter of Demands’ was sent to the BCB prior to the press meet, Rahman said.
Most of the national players were present at the media call, however, none except Shakib Al Hasan talked to the media.
The twelfth demand of the player stated that “Going forward, there should be transparency and accountability of income and expenditure in Bangladeshi cricket in the interest of all its stakeholders.
“Arrangements will have to be made where professional cricketers are given a fair share of the revenue generated by BCB through commercial exploitation of cricket and its associated interests, which, after all, is made possible through the toil and performance of the professional cricketers in the first place.
“A cricketer's welfare, provident and compensation fund and insurance scheme has to be established and administered, which will ensure welfare of cricketers who have fallen on hard times, provide pensions to retired cricketers and compensation to injured cricketers,” the players demanded.
The protesting players also demanded similar provisions be made for female cricketers to ensure their fair pay to attain gender parity in the cricket.
On Monday, the cricketers placed an 11-point demand and announced that they will not take part in cricketing activities unless their demands were met.
The demands include a share from the profits of the BCB for them, immediate resignation of the president and secretary of CWAB, returning to the previous model of Dhaka League, and the BPL from the next year, increasing the match fee in the first-class cricket, hiking the salaries of the national cricketers, local coaches, physios, trainers and groundsmen, arranging more domestic cricket events, fixing stable domestic calendar, clearing cricketers’ dues for the Dhaka League and ensuring cricketers’ opportunities to play more foreign leagues.