Cricketers withdraw strike

The national cricketers called off their strike and will return to cricketing activities from October 25 after reaching an agreeable resolution with the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) at its headquarters in Mirpur earlier tonight.

The cricketers met with the officials after holding a meeting at a city hotel and holding discussions amongst themselves in the evening.

BCB president Nazmul Hassan informed that the two parties resolved the issues and that the National Cricket League (NCL) would resume from October 26 while the national team players would start their training camp from October 25 ahead of their tour to India for a three-match T20I and two-match Test series.

Hassan said that the BCB were willing to listen to most of the demands as soon as they were announced and said that the board had agreed to nine of the 11 original demands.

"We sat a while ago with the players. We thank them for coming. They had some demands and I let you know yesterday that most of them were agreeable and that they would be done if they came to us, and that happened today. Of the 11 demands, there is nothing the BCB can do about the first one [demand for more respect from the Cricketers' Welfare Association of Bangladesh] and the last one [permission to play in more than two foreign leagues per year]. We said the last one would be on a case-to-case basis because not many players get the chance to play in more than two leagues. We are not saying anything solid because we a certain line of thinking behind that and I let you know before that those other nine demands were possible to meet.

Among the demands, Hassan specifically said that reverting the Dhaka Premier League (BPL) to the players' transfer and returning to the previous franchise-based system of the Bangladesh Premier League would be adopted.

"Changing the player-by-choice system in the DPL to the previous players' transfer system, we agreed... reverting to the previous BPL system from the next season, we agreed."

The board president added that the third round of the National Cricket League (NCL), which was slated to start today, had been decided to be scrapped before players insisted it go ahead from Saturday.

"The third round of the NCL was decided to be scrapped, but they wanted to play so we agreed to start it from Saturday. The national team players will join the national camp [for the India series] from the 25th. 

"I think it is a very good resolution. The players may not think that because of my anger the previous few days," Hassan added on a lighter note.

When asked about the two new demands -- revenue sharing and that the provisions also be reflected in women's cricket wherever "practically and commercially feasible" -- that the cricketers had brought up in today's meeting through their spokesperson, Barrister Mostafizur Rahman Khan, the BCB boss said those were not up for discussion.

"We did not discuss the two new issues, we only talked about the original 11 demands. I heard that a lawyer or barrister came and we immediately referred it to our legal win."

After the president had his turn, Bangladesh T20I and Test skipper Shakib Al Hasan spoke and seemed happy with the resolution.

"Most of our demands were heard by everyone here, including the president, and they agreed to meet them as soon as possible. With that hope, first-class players will start playing [in the NCL] from Saturday and the national team players will start camp from the 25th," Shakib said.

Asked about the number one item on their list of demands, the lack of respect from members of CWAB which led to a demand to replace its president, Naimur Rahman, through elections, Shakib said: "Honestly, we spoke about that. We do not know the names of the rules or regulations even but we asked to hold the elections as soon as possible. We asked that the players have a representative to hear the issues of the players. We will do that when we have time, maybe after the NCL."

When asked about the two new demands, Shakib said it the board did not entertain them yet as it did not get a chance to discuss those items internally.

"As the new demands were made today, they did not get a chance to discuss. But when we sit again, they will bring those to the table.

However, the left-armer also stated that the players' happiness with the resolution could only be gauged when the changes were implemented. 

"Only all the players can say whether we are happy. Once those things are implemented, can we accurately say how happy we are." said Shakib.