Waiting game on both sides
Bangladesh cricket was rocked after the players, led by national team stalwarts, suddenly chose to boycott all cricketing activities on Monday unless an 11-point list of demands was met by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB).
After an emergency meeting with Dhaka-based board directors at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday, BCB president Nazmul Hassan lashed out at the cricketers' demands during an hour-long press conference, stating that there was a conspiracy to tarnish the image of Bangladesh cricket.
However, Hassan also played the waiting game. He said he expected players to deliver their demands to the board instead of going on strike but also seemed confident that the national team's upcoming tour of India would go on as planned along with the third round of the National Cricket League (NCL), which is scheduled to start tomorrow.
The national team's training camp for the tour of India is scheduled to begin from October 25 and Hassan said that he would wait and see how many of the players took part in the national camp and also the NCL.
It was a completely alien scenario at the home of cricket in Mirpur as there was no presence of cricketers.
There is tremendous speculation about what the cricketers' next step will be and, according to sources, the players are united in their movement and are also playing the waiting game. It was learned that they would bring everything to light in the next one or two days.
Although none of the players were willing to divulge their next move, they sounded determined about what they were doing. It was also learnt that the players would hire a spokesperson from outside their ranks to represent them.
The million-dollar question that is still up in the air is why the cricketers did not go to the BCB with their demands and instead opt to reveal them to the media first. To that, they echoed the same sentiments expressed on Monday.
"As the players get to know about the board decisions through media, we also opted to do the same," a cricketer requesting anonymity told The Daily Star.
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