The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has asked director M Nazmul Islam to explain his recent “objectionable comments”, giving him 48 hours to reply. The letter landed only a couple of hours before today’s scheduled Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) fixtures, heightening an already awkward stand-off between the board and the players’ association, CWAB.
While the BCB statement was brief, it did underline the seriousness of the charge: “The board has already initiated formal disciplinary proceedings against the board member concerned… The matter will be dealt with through due process and appropriate action will be taken based on the outcome of the proceedings.”
CWAB, led by former international Mohammad Mithun, has called for a nationwide boycott of all cricket until the matter is settled. That call had an immediate effect on Thursday morning: the four Dhaka First-Division League matches simply never got going. Word then filtered through that the Chattogram Royals and Noakhali Express squads, due to play the day’s first BPL game in Mirpur, were inclined to stay put in the dressing-room rather than take the field.
Behind the scenes, several board directors rang Mithun late on Wednesday, offering to remove Nazmul from his post as chair of the finance committee. According to people close to the talks, Mithun appreciated the gesture but felt it did not address wider concerns about how the board deals with its own members’ public comments. For now, the boycott remains.
An hour before the scheduled toss, neither side looked like blinking. CWAB executives were still on the phone to senior players, and the Royals’ coach had to abandon his usual pre-match team talk because—well—there was no match to prepare for.
If play does not start on time, CWAB is expected to hold a press conference outlining detailed demands. Top of the list is Nazmul’s resignation; further down are calls for clearer disciplinary guidelines and a stronger players’ voice in financial decisions.
What happens next? On paper, the BCB has delivered its formal notice, so the ball is technically in Nazmul’s court. Yet the real pressure point is whether enough contracted cricketers will cross the picket line. If they don’t, the BPL’s packed schedule—already tight because of the upcoming T20 World Cup—could unravel quickly.
The board hopes the disciplinary process will cool tempers. The players, for the moment, appear content to wait it out. Either way, the next 48 hours look as important off the field as anything that might have happened between bat and ball today.
