Desk Report:
The ‘election’ issue in Bangladesh is never smooth. No matter where the election is. The 2025 election of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is no exception. The election issue has reached the court this time.
The BCB, along with the National Sports Council (NSC) and a section of the district division and club cricket organizers, has extended the time for submitting the nominations for councilors for categories 1, 2 and 3 in two phases due to opposition from the BCB, the National Sports Council (NSC), and a section of the district division and club cricket organizers. A letter signed by BCB President Aminul Islam sent to the Secretary of the Ministry of Youth and Sports on September 18 said that although there was an obligation to send names from among the members of the ad hoc committees of district and divisional sports organizations as BCB councilors, it was not properly followed. It was said that new names of councilors should be sent by 6 pm on September 22 (tomorrow).
Four candidates filed a writ petition in the High Court challenging the validity of the letter signed by the BCB President to the Secretary of the Ministry of Youth and Sports. In the verdict of that writ, the Chamber Judge Court of the Appellate Division suspended the effectiveness of the letter for 15 days. At the same time, the BCB has been asked to respond to the writ within the next 10 working days. This verdict of the court created a situation where a new equation and confusion was created regarding the BCB election issue. But in the evening, the situation changed with the counter-wrote of the BCB lawyer in the Chamber Court against the writ.
In a notice sent by the BCB in the evening, it was stated that on September 18, lawyer ABM Manjurul Alam Dulal and some others filed a writ petition in the High Court challenging the validity of the letter signed by the BCB president. The letter contained instructions to form the BCB general council and nominate councilors from district and divisional sports organizations for the 2025 Board of Directors elections.
From now on, district and divisional sports organizations will be able to nominate councilors only through ad hoc committees. This directly affects the process of preparing the voter list. The draft voter list was supposed to be published yesterday at 7 pm. But the Election Commission has not published it till the time of writing this report. BCB Director and Media Committee Head Iftekhar Rahman Mithu came to the press box of Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla Stadium to meet journalists. He then said that the 6 pm board meeting has been postponed to 9 pm. However, he did not answer the question of why the meeting was postponed. According to multiple sources, the names of councilors from all districts and divisions were not submitted to the board even after the scheduled time of 6 pm. That is why the board meeting was postponed.
The election process is not facing any legal hurdles due to the order of the Chamber Court for the time being. The election schedule is also upheld. Although the lawyers for the writ petitioners in the previous writ petition argued, ‘We have presented the BCB constitution before the court; especially by mentioning Article 9, we have shown that there is no obligation to nominate councilors from the ad hoc committee.’
As per the instructions of the BCB President’s letter, the nomination of councilors from Category 1 to the district and divisional levels is being taken only through the ad hoc committee. Most of the clubs in Category 2 have already submitted their councilor nominations. As a result, they are definitely on the voter list. Category 3 is mainly the services group. Here, the board has nominated the councilors keeping in mind the equation of the directors’ votes. Former captain Khaled Masud Pilot and cricketer Debabrata Pal will be contesting in this category. The tension is now increasing over the question of who will survive as councilors from Categories 1 and 2 to the end. Along with this, the complications and controversy regarding the elections are also increasing.
