Constitution approved-Cricket

BCB elections next month

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) councillors yesterday approved the new constitution, paving the way for elections next month.BCB president Maj Gen Sina Ibn Jamali disclosed this at a press conference, held after the board's extraordinary general meeting (EGM) at a local hotel in the evening."

After consultation with the councillors, we unanimously decided to approve the new constitution," said Jamali, adding that it was now up to the National Sports Council (NSC) to specify a date after ratifying the constitution."We kept most of the rules and regulations in the NSC constitution for federations. The NSC will tell us the date of the election and the next course of action," informed Jamali.According to the new charter, there will be 25 directors, instead of 31 members of the earlier constitution.

Of the twenty-five, the president would be either nominated or elected, according to the NSC Act.The councillors will elect 24 directors: 12 of them will come from Dhaka clubs, ten from divisional and district sports associations, universities and education boards while the NSC will nominate one director.

The one other director, that was supposed to come from the category of 16 former players, will now come from an expanded group of five NSC councillors, a maximum of seven from the different services, one each from Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA), Umpires and Scorers' Association, Women's Sports Association and BKSP and two from the champions and runners-up of a tournament (corporate league).It eliminates any chance of the sixteen former players to hold a place in the next cricket board.

There was talk of including one director from fifteen former players but although including CWAB's councillorship has increased the number of councillors, they would now be lucky enough to be elected from 34 councillors in the third category.The discussion that spanned nearly two hours however didn't spring any major surprises with no big changes forthcoming in the draft constitution.

However, there was talk of changing one ruling where one councillor cannot hold a post in two sports federations, including BCB. A section of the councillors, mainly from the forum, argued that it will be taxing on them to handle so many sports at the same time.It was decided that except councillors from two organisations (BOA and Women's), none of the others can hold posts in another federation.

The constitution left no loophole for any bias as the voting system in the constitution would end any chance of clouting power by any quarter. It also ensures the decentralisation of the country's most popular game.

BCB's acting CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury and legal adviser Barrister Tanzib Hasan were also present during the press conference.