'Have some shame': Bogura sports organiser says about BCB official

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) withdrew its officials and equipments from the Bogura Shaheed Chandu Stadium on Thursday, alleging non-cooperation from the local sports authorities.

In view of this incident, Bogura District Sports Association's general secretary Masudur Rahman Milan held a press conference last night and said that BCB officials should be ashamed of themselves.

On March 2, BCB CEO Nizam Uddin Chowdhury told the National Sports Council in a letter that 'due to the non-cooperation of the Bogura Sports Association for the past few years, it is not possible to organise tournaments/leagues regularly by the BCB at the stadium. In view of this, BCB has taken the decision to transfer all the responsibilities of the maintenance of the said stadium to the NSC. All the officials/employees of the BCB working at the venue have already been transferred to another venue, the letter said.

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This incident has infuriated the residents of Bogura, some of whom have criticised BCB in harsh language.

At the press conference, Masudur said, "Why are they (BCB) angry? Tell us, this is our Premier League. We inaugurated our Premier League (on March 1). I have given a letter to the BCB's game development informing that we have launched the league on March 1. This has been brought to your notice through the letter.

"Yesterday (March 1) a (BCB) official named Baten (BCB Grounds Committee Manager Abdul Baten) with whom I have a very good relationship called me up and asked me why we were playing there (Chandu Stadium). I said what's the problem with that? Ramadan starts on March 25. When will we play our games? If we don't play, how will we develop?"

"..they later said ok let's see what can be done. He called again after a while and said they would pick up all the people and stuff from the venue. One should have some shame before saying that! What else is there to pick up?"

"A journalist brother told me that BCB spends 15 lakh taka a month here. Tk 15 lakh is given to whom? And where is the implementation of that money? Has BCB been able to turn on a flood light in the last 15 years? Have any roads been renovated in the last 15 years? We renovated the stadium roads with our own money," claimed Masudur.

"BCB has spent 30 crores, 50 crores, 100 crores in different parts of the country to renovate stadiums. In the last 10 years, has BCB invested even thousands of taka in Bogra?" Masudur asked.

The secretary of the DSA also complained to journalists that the attitude of some officials of BCB was biased towards Bogura.

When asked whether the DSA will try to resolve the matter on its own, Masudur said, "We want a logical solution. We want BCB's attention on us. Let there be international quality games here. Bogura people want that. We are not against sports.

"A DSA has 20 to 25 events in a year. We have to manage those games. This responsibility has been given to us by the people of Bogura to keep the sports arena of Bogura running. There is only one ground in Bogura."