Aminul presents decentralisation plans on first day as BCB president

When asked how Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) President Aminul Islam Bulbul compares with his predecessors Nazmul Hassan and Faruque Ahmed, Director Iftekhar Rahman’s response left no doubt that the latest national cricket boss has wasted no time in getting into his role.

Aminul, who scored the first Test century for Bangladesh on his debut, became the 16th president of the board unopposed on Friday evening.

Appointed for a short tenure at the top cricketing post in the country, Aminul got busy the day after he took up the role.

Aminul was initially scheduled to visit the BCB office on Saturday for a meeting with the board directors, so everyone had been waiting for him since morning. The BCB president arrived at the office for the first time after 1pm.

Initially, Aminul met the heads of departments, including the Cricket Management Department, Women's Cricket Wing, Game Development, and several BCB standing committees, along with other staff members.

He then visited the National Cricket Academy building and interacted with players taking part in the national Test team’s training camp.

Aminul also attended the “BCB List A Umpires Workshop”, led by Sharfuddoula Ibne Shahid Saikat, the first umpire from Bangladesh to join the ICC Elite Panel.

At 3pm, he presided over a board meeting that lasted almost four and a half hours.

Opening the session with a presentation of his work plan, the former national team captain highlighted key issues, especially the decentralisation of cricket.

After the meeting, Iftekhar gave a detailed account of the discussion at a press conference.

“There was a very fruitful discussion, which is why it lasted around four and a half hours. Our president gave a presentation based on his own experiences, and from that, we have already initiated four programmes.

“The names of these programmes are: Protect the Spirit of the Game, High Performance for Everyone, Connect and Grow, and Transparency and Good Governance in All Areas. We are committed to ensuring transparency in all matters concerning the cricket board."

Aminul did not consider his work finished merely by giving the presentation.

He urged directors in charge of several standing committees to provide their presentations by Jun 30, outlining their respective departments and transition plans.

At Friday’s press conference, Aminul said his main goal was to promote cricket throughout Bangladesh, a topic that dominated Saturday’s board meeting.

As a pilot project, Aminul’s board plans to decentralise cricket operations by setting up “mini BCB” offices outside Dhaka.

The pilot will focus on North Bengal, Rajshahi, and the Dhaka-Chittagong regions.

To expedite the work, BCB Director Saiful Alam Swapon Chowdhury has been assigned oversight of the north. Another director, Salahuddin Chowdhury, will manage the Dhaka-Chittagong section.

The call for regional cricket bodies to support decentralisation has been long-standing.

The Hassan-led board initiated experimental regional organisations in Chittagong and Sylhet a few years ago, but progress was limited.

With the renewed discussion of decentralisation, questions naturally emerge about whether this approach signifies a new beginning for the regional cricket bodies. The head of the BCB's media department provided more clarification.

Iftekhar said, “Given our limited experience, we view this as a pilot project. We’re assigning responsibility to two directors for immediate implementation.

“Currently, school cricket is managed entirely from Dhaka, which we aim to change by decentralising management to specific regions. We are building detailed plans to merge past initiatives with the new president’s ideas.”

Iftekhar mentioned that the board meeting also thoroughly reviewed the revenue from the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL).

Faruque, who recently lost the position of board chief, had repeatedly said that BCB earned over Tk 130 million from ticket sales in the last edition.

Iftekhar, however, pointed out some inconsistencies in that information.

The BCB director provided insights into the revenue generated from ticket sales and the overall earnings from the BPL, excluding all expenses.

“A total of Tk 123.4 million was earned from ticket sales. After accounting for the management costs of ticket sales and the revenue shared with the teams participating in the BPL, our net profit from ticket sales was Tk 33.5 million.”

Nonetheless, this figure does not represent the total profit of the BCB from this year’s BPL. The board currently owes more than Tk 210 million in franchise fees, TV rights, and other sponsorship rights.

Iftekhar expressed optimism about the possibility of collecting these dues, saying: “If we manage to collect the owed money, the BCB will ultimately profit Tk 7.5 million from the last BPL."

But past experiences have shown that the BCB often struggles to collect these outstanding amounts. At times, subsidies are provided from its funds, leading to a heavier balance sheet.

So, was this year's BPL unprofitable for the BCB? Iftekhar remained hopeful about collecting the dues.

“If we don’t receive the money owed, it would certainly have been unprofitable. However, we will pursue the owed amounts, and should we receive all of it, our calculations suggest a profit of Tk 7.5 million.”

The board meeting also concluded with the decision to appoint a chief financial officer (CFO) from outside the BPL. A human resources consultant will also be hired to revamp the BCB's human resources department.

Additionally, the meeting determined the need to develop an umpire development and digitisation programme. Furthermore, the next edition of the Bangladesh Cricket League (BCL) has been postponed to September, and the BCB will conduct a curator course under the supervision of Toby Lumsden, a turf manager with 30-plus years of experience in the area.