New demands mirror Cricket Australia’s 2017 gridlock
While the national cricketers' sudden strike following the announcement of an 11-point demand on Monday had taken Bangladesh cricket by storm, the cricketers yesterday added two more points to their list of demands, which would see a radical shake-up in the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB).
During a press conference at a city hotel in Gulshan yesterday, Barrister Mustafizur Rahman Khan spoke on the cricketers' behalf and said that, in addition the original 11 demands, the cricketers wanted a revenue sharing model similar to what Australian cricketers negotiated through the Australian Cricketers Association (ACA) and also that women cricketers be afforded the same provisions where 'practically and commercially viable'.
"In Australia, cricketers get a share of the revenue from Cricket Australia (CA) alongside their regular salary. The Australian players get a negotiated share of the revenue from the Big Bash League. We want a similar system for our players, which will allow cricketers to get a share from the board's revenue after negotiations each year," said Mustafizur, who was employed as the cricketers' spokesman.
The two newly added demand by the players is given in its entirety here:
12. Going forward, there should be transparency and accountability of income and expenditure and maintenance of accounts in Bangladeshi cricket in the interests of all its stakeholders. Arrangements will have to be made where professional cricketers are given a fair share of the revenue generated by BCB through commercial exploitation of cricket and its associated interests, which, after all, is made possible through the toil and performance of professional cricketers. A cricketers' welfare, provident and compensation fund and insurance scheme has to be established and administered, which will ensure welfare of cricketers who have fallen on the hard times, provide pensions to retired cricketers and compensation to injured cricketers on fulfilment of objectively defined and administered criteria.
13. To the extent practical and commercially feasible, similar provisions as above will have to be made for female cricketers, with the ultimate objective of attaining gender parity as early as possible.
There was also an alteration to the demand that the committee of the Cricketers' Welfare Association of Bangladesh (CWAB) resign immediately. The cricketers now want the formation of a professional cricketer's association similar to those in England and Australia in order to negotiate matters with the board.
The official website of the Australian Cricketers' Association Inc. (ACA), which was established in 1997, states that it is "the collective and representative voice of past and present male and female elite domestic and international cricketers in Australia."
Meanwhile, the Professional Cricketers' Association (PCA), which is the representative body of past and present first-class cricketers in England and Wales, have been working with the development and welfare programme of its member since 1967.
However, revenue sharing has always been a bone of contention and never easy to negotiate. CA had attempted to scrap revenue sharing in 2017 and that led to a prolonged and bitter public dispute between all sides. The fixed percentage of revenue share agreement has existed in Australian cricket since 1998 and it was ultimately retained, but getting it instated is no easy task.
CA also had to deal with the issue of women's payments, with the 2017 pay deal applying to all female players for the first time in Australian cricket and increasing their payments from AUD 7.5 million to 55.2 million.
However, as Bangladesh Cricket Board President Nazmul Hassan said yesterday, he will not be entertaining either of the new demands.
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