CWAB kept waiting

With only a day left before the inter-club cricketers transfer for the Premier Division league, no announcements re

garding the fate of the seven suspended cricketers, has been made by either State Minister for Youth and Sports Obaidul Quader or the Bangladesh Cricket Board(BCB). The three-day long transfers is scheduled to begin from tomorrow.

According to an understanding between the State Minister and the Cricketers Welfare Association of Bangladesh (CWAB), the ban imposed on the seven, which barred them from taking part in the transfers, was supposed to be withdrawn by the BCB before Monday.

But the CWAB, which reconsidered its decision of not playing for any team selected by the BCB unless the ban was lifted following an assurance from Quader on Wednesday night, was yet to receive any news.

"We have full confidence in the Minister. We are expecting a positive result by tomorrow. He was the man who persuaded us play against the MCC in Rajshahi with his assurance. I am sure he will keep his word," said CWAB secretary Faruque Ahmed at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday evening.

Meanwhile, the State Minister had an hour-long meeting with the Mahanagari Cricket Club Samiti (MCCS) officials at his NSC office on Thursday night. It was the MCCS, which represents the ten Premier Division clubs, who first raised the demand for banning the cricketers through the Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metropolitan (CCDM). They accused the seven for making objectionable remarks against some top club officials during their demonstration for an early transfer in November.

In the meeting, Quader requested the MCCS officials to reconsider their decision of boycotting the seven cricketers--Minhazul Abedin, Aminul Islam, Mohammed Rafique, Khaled Mahmud, Enamul Hoque, Faruque Ahmed and Mahbubur Rahman.

It was learnt that the ten Premier Division Club officials told Quader that they would give their final decision after talking to the BCB president Saber Hossain who returned home from the USA on Friday.

The MCCS had called a meeting at the Wari Club premises last night to discuss their future course of action.

A source close to the MCCS said that the clubs might review their decision in order to honour the minister's request.

But in another development, it was learnt that the ten Premier Division clubs might go for a secret agreement.

According to that pact, the clubs will not sign any of the seven cricketers even if the ban on them was lifted.

It was also understood that the clubs were in unison that each of them would select three or four players from the 28-men cricketers national pool.

Once a club has made its choice, the other nine will not try to sign those players.

This step was supposedly being taken to minimise the contract rates of the players.