Voice against Big Three gets louder
As the ICC executive board meeting slated for January 28-29 in Dubai approaches, pressure is mounting from different quarters opposing the radical draft proposal that aims to delegate the decision-making and financial powers to the BCCI, the ECB and CA and more frighteningly, to relegate Bangladesh and Zimbabwe to the second tier of Test cricket.
The draft sparked a huge uproar in Bangladesh, with the young people arranging human chains in different parts of the country, including in the capital's Shahbagh over the past few days. They carried festoons and placards with a popular slogan: “Ek dafa ek desh, Test khelbe Bangladesh” (One demand, one country; Bangladesh will play Tests).
The protests continued yesterday and got a bigger platform as the sports ministry and the BNP expressed their solidarity with the protesters.
State Minister for Sports, Biren Sikder, lent his support by saying, “It is a very important issue which we will have to think deeply before delivering the official statement, but I think the cricket board [BCB] should not go against the public sentiment.”
The BNP also expressed its full solidarity with the cause and asked for definite steps regarding the issue from the government.
Several former ICC bosses and former players have also stood against the proposal.
Yesterday, former ICC presidents Ehsan Mani and Malcolm Gray, former ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed, former presidents of the Pakistan Cricket Board Shaharyar Khan and Tauqir Zia and former West Indies captain Sir Clive Lloyd undersigned a letter to the ICC and all the full, associate and affiliate members of the ICC, to withdraw the draft proposal.
The letter explained the disastrous outcome the proposal, if passed, would have on the ambitions of spreading the game globally and how it would enrich the coffers of the "big three" at the expense of the other full, associate and affiliate members.
The proposal needs at least two-thirds (eight) votes out of the 10 full members of the ICC to be passed, and as things stand, consensus against the proposal is growing among the other full members and pressure from former players and former ICC officials is also mounting.
The South African Cricket Board, the Pakistan Cricket Board and the Sri Lankan Cricket Board have already voiced their opposition to the proposal while the Bangladesh Cricket Board, despite initially taking a stance in its favour, has backtracked since coming under tremendous pressure from the media and the cricket loving people.
As protests continue, BCB President Nazmul Hasan Papon flew to Dubai yesterday to attend the crucial meeting. Cricket fans of Bangladesh will have their fingers crossed that the BCB boss takes a bold stance and unites with the other board members to negate the proposal and thereby save the future of Bangladesh cricket.
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