Bangladesh cricketers will end their boycott if BCB director Nazmul Islam publicly apologises for his remarks. The players have rejected a closed-door apology offer and demand a public one to resume playing in the BPL on Friday.
Bangladesh players are ready to end their boycott of cricket in the country if the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) director Nazmul Islam publicly apologises for his "disparaging remarks" about players recently, ESPNCricinfo reported on Thursday.
The Controversy: Director's Remarks and Player Boycott
On Wednesday, days after calling ex Bangladesh captain Tamil Iqbal an "Indian agent" for suggesting dialogue between two cricketing nations to resolve the T20 World Cup deadlock after release of pacer Mustafizur Rahman by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) from IPL 2026 on instruction of BCCI in light of atrocities against minorities in Bangladesh, Nazmul added to his controversial remarks by suggesting that BCB does not owe the team any compensation if the players miss T20 World Cup and pointed to their not winning major trophies. This caused a huge uproar within Bangladesh cricket community as the matches of Bangladesh Premier League (DPL) and Dhaka Cricket League scheduled for Thursday did not take place because of their boycott.
"The question [of compensation] does not even arise. We have invested so much on them, they haven't been able to achieve anything, anywhere. Have we won a single global trophy till now? Then we could've said every time, you have failed to perform, whatever we have spent on you, now we will take it back. Return it to us," Nazmul had said, as qouted by Daily Star on Wednesday.
Players and Welfare Association Condemn Remarks
Cricketers Welfare Association of Bangladesh (CWAB) president Mohammed Mithun and star all-rounder Mehidy Hasan Miraz held pressers adressing Nazmul's statements, with the former demanding Nazmul's resignation from post of director and Miraz condemning and rebuttling the director's "shameful and inappropriate" remarks. The all-rounder also pointed out how the International Cricket Council (ICC) and sponsors help their players with majority of their income.
Negotiations and BCB's Response
While BCB issued a statement announcing removal of Nazmul from chairmanship of board's Finance Committee, as per ESPNCricinfo, players want him to be ousted as a director and CWAB wants a public apology from him. As per ESPNCricinfo, on Thursday evening during a phone call, BCB president Aminul Islam, a former captain, had reportedly said that only way Nazmul could apologise is through a "closed door meeting". The players he spoke to, including some senior talent, did not appreciate this stance of Aminul.
CWAB Lays Down Final Conditions
After the call, CWAB issued a statement saying that after communication with BCB and cricketers, it had been decided that players would feature in BPL on Friday and withdraw from their boycott if Nazmul makes a public apology. The statement also added that it was fine with BCB taking their time and following their process to remove Nazmul from board of directors.
"We welcome the decision to remove BCB director M Nazmul Islam from the board's finance committee," the CWAB said as quoted by ESPNCricinfo. "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 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," the statement continued.
This keeps the ball right in BCB's court to resolve the issue, but some of the people present on the call with Aminul have told ESPNCricinfo that they are not very optimistic about it. There are two BPL matches taking place on Friday: Dhaka Capitals vs Rangpur Riders at 2pm local time and Chattogram Royals vs Rajshahi Warriors at 6pm local time.
Context: The Initial Ultimatum
Earlier on Thursday, after the first game of the day was boycotted with players not turning to the field at Mirpur and before Nazmul was removed from chairmanship of Finance Committee, Mithun had said in his presser, "The discussion among the players has been that since yesterday night, we have been told 'procedure, procedure, procedure' at every step," he said. "They [BCB] had come with a solution but we did not agree. After that, they wanted 48 hours for their procedure, so I spoke to the players and after discussion our question is 'after 48 hours of time taken, if he does not resign, then too we will stop playing."
"We have protested and therefore the first game today would not happen. If we even play today's second game, but after 48 hours if he is not removed, then ultimately the game will stop again. Now we will go only on one condition, and that is if BCB comes to you guys and gives a commitment that they guarantee that this man will not be part of the BCB within 48 hours, and if he is part of the BCB, then cricketers' decision to not play won't earn them any punishments. And that BCB will take all responsibility."
"If BCB officially declares this, then we will move ahead, we think. We have already told them this, but we have not received such confirmation from them yet," he concluded.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianet Newsable English staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)