Mohammad Mithun, the 33-year-old batter capped 51 times in Bangladesh’s white-ball sides, will head the Cricketers’ Welfare Association of Bangladesh (CWAB) for the next three years. The ballot, held in Dhaka on Thursday, saw Mithun collect 154 votes to interim convenor Salim Shahed’s 34, according to election commissioner Iftekhar Rahman.
“We will try to solve everything through negotiation,” Mithun said shortly after the result. “If that’s not possible, as I have come here to protect the rights of the cricketers, I have to speak for them. The BCB is our guardian. We can go to our guardian with whatever demands that we have. I hope the BCB sees those demands positively.”
That measured promise touches the main issue: CWAB has been around since 2004 yet had never staged a proper election. Naimur Rahman, the former Bangladesh captain and serving MP, ran the body for 11 years alongside general secretary Debabrata Paul. Both resigned earlier this year after pressure from senior players, leaving Shahed to steer an ad-hoc committee until Thursday’s vote.
The rest of the new executive walked in unopposed, hardly a surprise given how overdue the overhaul was. Ex-opener Shahriar Hossain takes the senior vice-president slot, with current keeper-batter Nurul Hasan as vice-president. The committee includes Najmul Hossain Shanto, Shamsur Rahman, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Rumana Ahmed, Khaled Mashud, Imrul Kayes, Irfan Sukkur and Under-19 World Cup-winning captain Akbar Ali. For a change, most of the country’s active internationals are now directly tied to their own players’ union.
CWAB, an affiliate of the World Cricketers’ Association, really entered the wider conversation in 2019 when the national squad called an indefinite strike over pay and governance. A revamp of their own union was one of the key demands. On paper, Thursday finally meets that pledge; in practice, the new team still has to win trust, both from players and the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB).
A few early tasks sit waiting: standard contracts for women cricketers, medical insurance that actually works outside Dhaka, and a clearer say on domestic schedules that are too often announced at the last minute. None of it is glamorous, all of it matters.
Mithun’s reference to the BCB as a “guardian” hints at the balance he must strike—collaborate where possible, push back when required. Seasoned observers reckon he has about six months’ grace before the first real test.
