‘Unprecedented decision’ alters CWAB’s playing field

Focusing on constitutional amendments and preparations for an election likely in September, the Cricketers' Welfare Association of Bangladesh (CWAB) held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Tuesday.

Since the previous committee's dissolution in March, the CWAB has been run by an ad-hoc committee led by Salim Shahed.

A key decision that raised eyebrows was the removal of voting rights for former first-class players. While the earlier constitution allowed all current and ex-national, first-class, and List A cricketers to vote, the new amendment limits this to only current first-class and all national players.

However, former first-class cricketers can still become life members for Tk one lakh but cannot vote or contest elections.

Former CWAB general secretary Debabrata Paul alleged that the "unprecedented decision" was made due to the "influence" of ex-national captain Tamim Iqbal, despite Salim's reported preference to include all former players as permanent members.

"He [Tamim] said in the meeting that he represents many cricketers and so everyone should take his decision into account," Debabrata told The Daily Star on Tuesday, also questioning the legitimacy of the AGM held at the BCB premises.

"We have like 1,000 members or so. For an AGM, at least 300 members needed to be present, but it took place with only 30-35 members… Because of that [the decision to take away the voting rights of the former first-class players], the membership number will be reduced quite drastically," he added.

When contacted, Tamim declined to comment on the matter and insisted that this reporter talk to convenor Salim instead.

"I'm not the right person to ask this. You should talk to the ad hoc committee's [Salim] Shahed bhai and he will give you a better answer," said Tamim.

Salim later confirmed he "wanted to have all as permanent members" but said the decision followed the AGM majority view. He also abstained from voting on the issue.

"Our cricket started in 1972-73, and since then, those who represented first-class, premier league or the highest level, I feel they should be entitled to be permanent members," Salim told The Daily Star.

"They [former first-class cricketers] can come with the life member criteria… They can be members but won't have the voting rights. But the majority wants to have this," Salim added.

He also mentioned that CWAB has "no audit record in the last 15 years," having remained inactive in the period, and efforts are now being made to hand over leadership to an elected body.

"The most unfortunate thing is we don't have any list of members. Those who will pay for membership will stay, and the rest will join later as per the current situation. We have to start from zero after reforming all the things," Salim informed further.

Ad-hoc committee member Neeyamur Rashid Rahul said they plan to finalise membership subscriptions by August 15 to enable a September election, introducing a tiered fee structure for different cricketer categories.

"In the last 15 years, nothing has been done in this organisation. It was like garbage. We made the decision after taking consent from all… We have been given responsibility to select a representative body," said Neeyamul.

Among unanimously approved resolutions was a rule barring BCB directors or contracted employees from serving on CWAB's executive committee -- though they will retain voting rights.

Meanwhile, CWAB received official recognition from the National Sports Council (NSC), which has allotted it an office at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur -- its first official address.