Cricketers meet BCB boss over DPL
A number of Bangladesh national cricketers, including Mashrafe Bin Mortaza and Mushfiqur Rahim, had an unofficial meeting with BCB president Nazmul Hassan Papon yesterday in which issues regarding the players' transfer of the upcoming Dhaka Premier League (DPL) and the cricketers' national contracts were discussed.
The DPL, Bangladesh's premier 50-over domestic contest, is scheduled to begin on March 24 and the BCB is likely to employ the 'player-by-choice' method for the players' transfer. It's a method that a number of national players and List-A cricketers are reportedly aren't happy about.
Traditionally, the DPL allowed for negotiations between clubs and cricketers and players always had the opportunity to select their desired club. However, as per the player-by-choice system, the cricketers will be assigned a fixed price and each of the clubs will get an opportunity to sign the players on a rotating basis.
Speaking to The Daily Star yesterday, Papon said that the board will try to find an amicable way to settle the issue.
“The CCDM (the organising committee of the DPL) did propose the player-by-choice system for the DPL and we will discuss the pros and cons of the system in the next board meeting.
“The main worry of the players is that they might get signed up by a club in which they may not get the required cricketing practice, since the level of competition differs from one club to the other. But we also have to understand is that the system ensures a good amount of money for a majority of the cricketers, even though the income of a few leading cricketers does go on to decrease a bit,” said Papon.
“I have asked the players to provide me with their opinions and we will discuss this in the board meeting,” he added.
The board meeting is also set to offer new contracts to the national players and Papon said that there was an 'informal discussion' regarding that issue yesterday. The BCB's cricket operations committee, a few days ago, had in fact recommended the board to increase the salaries of the national players.
“We were having lunch when one of the players jokingly asked me about raising their salaries in the new contract. And I told them that there was no question of an increase since they just received an increment last year.
“The players were also provided with plenty of bonuses for their brilliant performance last year,” said Papon.
Furthermore, the players also had a discussion with the president regarding the upcoming series against Zimbabwe. The BCB boss explained the reasons behind the BCB's decision to convert the supposed Test series into a T20I one.
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