BCB Director threatening to quit the board saying he hasn’t been given the opportunity to work independently.
BCB director Nazmul Abedeen Fahim has threatened to quit from his position as a BCB director after a fallout with board president Faruque Ahmed.
Fahim has accused Faruque of making choices all by himself and claimed he hasn’t been given the chance to work independently. Shortly after the interim government assumed power in August, the two were elected to the BCB’s board of directors.
On December 30, the first day of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), there was an altercation between Faruque and Fahim. Since November, there has been little communication between Faruque and Fahim, despite the fact that since joining the board, these two have made all of the decisions regarding the BCB.
On August 21, Faruque was unanimously voted as the new president of the National Sports Council, and Fahim was elected as one of the board’s directors. Fahim claimed that Faruque had not contacted him when making decisions regarding the current Bangladesh Premier League and that the board is being hampered by the delay in appointing the standing committees, which have been unfilled because of the nation’s political unrest.
“I haven’t been able to contribute as much as I wanted to,” Fahim told Ekattor TV. “I should have given more input. I’ve spent 40-45 years in cricket. I wanted to make the cricket board more dynamic. We are not talking about things as much as we used to. President believes that his decisions are good for the board. Personally I feel I should know certain things, but I don’t know about them. I’m the member secretary of the BPL, but I don’t know many things about the tournament. I hear about them much later. I couldn’t give my input.
“The BCB’s constitution allows the president to take unilateral decisions and inform the board afterwards. He will have the opportunity to take such decisions but since there are many around him, it would be more dynamic if he discusses things with others. I think a huge barrier is the lack of standing committees. It is a major limiting factor in our work over the last four months.”
Fahim claimed that he had been considering leaving the position of director for a while. He claimed that as the head of the board’s cricket operations, he might have been helpful, and he even expressed this wish to Asif Mahmud, the sports advisor.
“I have told a few others that I [feel like quitting],” he said. “There was opportunity to work properly. That isn’t happening. The board president and I came to the board because we held the spirit of the student protests. I feel that the cricket operations being such an important department, one of us should be in charge.
“I would have recommended our board president as the cricket operations chairman, if he wasn’t the president. Don’t think we have any other options left. I think I have the ability to run the department. I have told the [sports] ministry that if I don’t get this [department], I will be very hurt. It would seem to me that we are not doing the right thing.”
Fahim also told Jamuna TV in a separate interview that Faruque had made “comments” about him. “I don’t want to mention the comment specifically, but it disappointed me,” Fahim said. “He commented about me yesterday too, in front of board directors and officials from the [sports] ministry. I was stunned by it. It was however clear that the board president isn’t taking me in confidence. We are both new entrants as board directors so I don’t know how right he is making that comment about me.
“I think it is better if I am not in the board. The things I can discuss outside the board about what should and what shouldn’t happen, I can’t do that in the board. If I can’t work in the board, I am better off outside the board. It is very important to work with freedom.”