Speaking at a press conference at the Hotel Purbani organised by the Awami League to highlight the present dismal state of the youth and sports arena yesterday, the former cricket supremo also was saddened by the fact that although he left behind Tk 200 crore in the BCB coffers, still the new cricket administrators had not made good use of it.

The briefing was chaired by Awami League general secretary Abdul Jalil. Former state minister for youth and sports Obaidul Quader read out the keynote paper.

Saber, who is an organising secretary of Awami League, believed that great strides were made in different age-group cricket competitions because he worked on a particular development plan.

"To decentralise the game countrywide, we established regional cricket associations. But these are not functioning at the moment. We raised Taka 200 crore for the BCB fund. But I don't see any output of that fund. Just looking at how the under-19 development squad was all out for 34 against India recently tells the story," he said adding that instead officials now are spending too much time on things like changing the name and the constitution of the Board.

Quader, who listed a number of successes as sports boss including the ICC Trophy triumph in 1997, 1999 SAF Games football gold medal and also attaining ODI and Test status, said that even the handing over of the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium to cricket was also a political decision.

"The present government doesn't want to hear the name of Bangabandhu from the TV commentators. That's why they have shifted cricket from Dhaka to Mirpur," commented Quader.

He said that the present set-up in the National Sports Council (NSC) has decided to build a multistoried building from the Sports Develop-ment Fund raised from the lottery. He claimed it was against the NSC constitution because the lottery was only introduced to raise funds for the development of different sports.

Quader also blamed the present government for not having any sports policy.

"We had success in almost every aspect of sport. But nowadays the sports arena is polluted. This is due to the government's inability to perform in any sector."

He urged the government to keep sports arena free from politics and party influence.

The briefing was also attended by former Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) general secretary Harunur Rashid, Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA) vice-president Mizanur Rahman Manu, former BFF assistant general secretary Badal Roy, former BCB director Dewan Shafiul Arefin Tutul and BFF assistant general secretary Ashrafuddin Ahmed Chunnu.