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Sacking of Selection Committee slated

Cricketers' Forum, an organisation of former national cricketers, expressed its grave concern about the current state of cricket in the country and the 'mismanagement' in Bangladesh Cricket Board.

The Forum gave a piece of their mind through a press conference at the Jatiya Press Club yesterday morning.

Former national cricketers, Forum president Mainul Haq, S M Faruque and general secretary Shakil Kasem spoke on the occasion. Former national captains Roquibul Hasan and Gazi Ashraf Hossain, and former cricketers GM Nowsher, Golam Faruque, Ahmed Iqbal, G S Hasan, Nasir Ahmed and Mahbub Hossain were also present.

Speaking to the press, Shakil Kasem said that nothing was done by the BCB officials to introduce a system for the game, as had been done by other cricketing nations.

He said, as former cricketers, the members of the Forum felt that they have a certain responsibility towards cricket.

``There is no established or published national cricket policy, and the board does not have any control over the game in the whole country,'' said Shakil, adding that cricket league was not being played in Chittagong for the last three years. He further said that even Nepal has a better cricket infrastructure than Bangladesh.

``We don't

ave anything to say about how the election of the board should be held. What we want is the board to include us in different sub-committees so that we can put our views.

``We have an indoor practice facility in Dhanmondi where hundreds of young boys are practising everyday. The indoor space is supposed to have 21 lights but you will find that only three are working, and that could be dangerous for the boys any day. Besides, there are many cricket coaching academies in the country, which are not registered with the board. Neither does the board have any system to monitor their activities,'' said Shakil.

The general secretary also condemned the board for humiliating members of the Selection Committee time and again.

``The Selection Committee is composed of former national cricketers. If the board continues with such attitude, I doubt if any cricketer will volunteer to be its member. We want the Selection Committee to be formed for a particular period, and within that period nobody should interfere in their job.

``The April 8 meeting of the BCB at BKSP (Savar) did not have any agenda to sack the Selection Committee. Only 16 of the 33 board members were present in that meeting. We don't know and neither are we interested to know why they have sacked the Selection Committee, but we condemn whatever has happened,'' Shakil added.

Forum president Mainul Haq said they were very much worried about the way cricket was going on in the country.

``We at the Forum feel that perhaps our cricketing future is not being charted in the manner that it should be. Mismanagement at the top level, questionable policy decisions, undue and unnecessary interference by board in the selection process, and public humiliation of national selectors are instances of the board's failures at this point,'' said Mainul.

When asked why were they reacting more than two weeks after the April 8 BCB meeting, SM Faruque said that the Forum was reviewing the situation for the last two weeks and, after analysing the matter, they finally thought of meeting the press to convey their message to the people.