With due respect...
When the cricketers started putting forth an 11-point demand for the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) on Monday with Naeem Islam starting things off, one of the first things he said was that the cricketers wanted more respect. Perhaps he was talking about the general level of respect afforded to domestic cricketers, but BCB President Nazmul Hassan's utterances yesterday may have provided further insights into what Naeem meant.
He was fuming over why the players had not come to the BCB before presenting their demands to the media and in doing so, went on a rant about how he had been doing personal favours for players.
"I have a personal relationship with the players. They come to me with their problems, even with personal matters and I try to solve those.
"Imrul [Kayes] called me at night suddenly and said that his child is in severe condition and that he had to take his child to Singapore. Then he said that he does not have the visa and that he needs it by tomorrow. I told him to book the tickets and that I'll see to the other things. I arranged for their visa by that night. He also asked me to make VIP arrangements as his child was very sick and I did that too."
He also talked about how he had granted Mashrafe Bin Mortaza and Tamim Iqbal's request for greater prize money after the 2017 tour of Sri Lanka. "They came to me at the airport lounge and asked to improve the fees. It was Tk 1.5 lakh, I increased it to 2.5… someone else asked for a further increase and it came to Tk 4 lakh."
He then moved on to Shakib Al Hasan, one of the leading figures behind the 11-point demand.
"When I last met Shakib, he told me that 'I played so well in the World Cup, won't you give me bonus?' He does not talk about these things [with the media]. I want the people to know everything."
The 11-point demand was made by cricketers in a united fashion, with international stars at times talking about domestic issues and domestic players focusing on national team players' problems.
Hassan mocked this yesterday. "Someone who never plays league cricket [Shakib] is talking about domestic leagues. Then someone else who never gets called up by foreign franchises [Mushfiqur Rahim] was talking about that.
"What bad treatment? Forget me, cricketers go to the honourary prime minister with their children, and the prime minister carries the child around and plays with the child," Hassan said in an apparent jab at Shakib.
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