Will BCB right a wrong?

Is the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) committed to right the wrong it has been part of since 2012? Or will it continue to engage in a legal battle to deny a landmark victory of its own?

At the moment it looks like the present BCB board of directors, led by president Nazmul Hassan, are adamant to walk on the same path it embarked upon in 2012 leading up the BCB elections in 2013.

Hassan became the first elected president of the BCB in 2013. But cruelly, he is facing the legality of holding his office at the fag end of his four-year term following a High Court ruling yesterday that served a show-cause notice to the NSC (National Sports Council), asking why it should not be directed to restrain the existing BCB executive committee from discharging its activities.

There is no denying that Hassan has taken Bangladesh cricket to a height that all should be very proud of. Under his stewardship the Tigers have now turned into a very competitive side. His cricket diplomacy also guaranteed Bangladesh more money from the ICC's coffers, making the BCB more affluent than ever before.

Tuesday's ruling following a petition by Mobasher Hossain, a former BCB director, is only an extension of a long legal battle in which the NSC was more at fault than the BCB. The crux of the problem was the amendment made in the BCB constitution in 2012 when Hassan led an ad-hoc committee with the primary purpose of holding the BCB elections.

The BCB on March 1, 2012 EGM adopted amendments to its constitution and sent it to the NSC for approval. But the NSC, instead of approving it, incorporated certain amendments to the BCB constitution and directed the board to include those amendments. In a letter to the BCB on August 21, 2012, the NSC also directed the BCB to forward two copies to the NSC for approval. The NSC, the regulatory body of the country's sport, finally approved the amendments on November 29, 2012.

That prompted a writ petition challenging the NSC's authority to amend BCB's constitution. On January 1, 2013 the High Court ruled that the NSC 'made the amendments in the BCB constitution without lawful authority'. It may be mentioned here that in the BCB constitution it is clearly stated that the BCB is the sole authority to amend its constitution and the NSC only has the right to approve or reject it.

Unfortunately, after that ruling the BCB lost an opportunity to correct that mistake. Despite having enough time to do that it went against its own rightful authority and decided to fight the battle alongside the NSC. They filed a Civil Petition in the Supreme Court and won a stay that paved the way for elections under the questioned 2012 BCB constitution.

However the highest court on July 26 this year upheld the High Court judgment while disposing the leave petitions of both NSC and BCB. Hassan immediately after the verdict termed it a victory for cricket. The court ruled that 'the BCB is at liberty to amend it constitution at any time as per provision of Article 11.1 and Article 26 of its constitution so that the requirements of International Cricket Council is met subject to the approval of NSC'.

This is the part of the judgment that elated Hassan most. But at the same time he was in a defiant mode when the question of legality of the amended 2012 BCB constitution came to the fore.

If the 2012 BCB constitution is illegal then it is understood that the present executive committee under it is also illegal. But the question is if the present BCB committee is gamely enough to accept that. Will they stop digging the hole that they are in? At the moment it looks like they want to drag the legal battle further instead if solving it once and for all.