Bangladesh cricketers make U-turn, call off boycott after late-night talks with BCB: 'Unfortunate incidents have taken place'

Cricketers’ Welfare Association of Bangladesh (CWAB) has made a U-turn, deciding to withdraw its complete boycott that had brought cricket to a standstill in Bangladesh in protest of comments made by Bangladesh Cricket Board’s (BCB) controversial director Najmul Islam.

The immediate end to the boycott means the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) could resume from 16 January after matches were called off on 15 January due to the protest. “Keeping the greater interest of cricket in mind, we will resume playing tomorrow [today],” CWAB president Mohammad Mithun said on Thursday late at night during a joint press conference of CWAB and BCB, during which board director Iftekhar Rahman Mithu was also present.

Before the press conference, the cricketer’s association had said that they would only withdraw the boycott if Najmul Islam made a public apology and BCB removing him from the finance committee earlier in the day would not be enough.

“We welcome the decision to remove BCB director M Nazmul Islam from the board’s finance committee,” CWAB said in an earlier statement. “Since he has been given a showcause notice and since the BCB has asked for time due to procedural reasons regarding his directorship, we want to give him that time. However, we hope that the process will continue.

“In addition, since Director M Nazmul Islam has publicly spoken insulting words about the cricketers, we hope that he will publicly apologise. We have informed the BCB that we are ready to return to the game from Friday if he publicly apologises and the process for his directorship is ongoing.”

As per ESPN, BCB president Aminul Islam had communicated to Mohammad Mithun, the head of the Cricketers’ Welfare Association of Bangladesh, that Najmul Islam was ready to apologies in a “closed-door” meeting, but players were not happy with this stance.

Why Bangladeshi cricketers made a U-turn

As a result, BCB was planning to postpone the BPL indefinitely, but things changed during another late-night meeting between the board and players, where franchise owners were also present. The cricketers agreed to withdraw their boycott after the BCB assured that it would continue its action against Najmul Islam.

“A few unfortunate incidents have taken place over the past two days, which is why we were unable to hold today’s BPL matches,” BCB director Iftekhar Rahman Mithu said at the joint press conference.

“The director who made the comments, he has been removed from his committee [finance committee]. We follow our constitution, and according to it, we have given him a show cause notice. He has been given 48 hours to respond, which will end at noon on the 17th. Then it will go to the disciplinary committee, as per the constitution and the process will continue.

“We tried to contact him throughout the day. We wanted to bring him here, but we couldn’t reach him,” he added.

CWAB president Mithun added that the board has promised to deliver on the promise as early as possible.

“They have assured us that they will reach him and fulfill our demands as early as possible. They will complete our demands following the procedures as early as possible,” he said.

The BCB, meanwhile, has already shifted the 15 January BL matches to the 16th. The matches for 16 and 17th January will be postponed by a day and the Eliminator and Qualifier 1 have been shifted from 19 January to 20.

The whole saga began when Najmul Islam attacked the players over their recent poor performances while claiming that they won’t be compensated if Bangladesh do not take part in the T20 World Cup.