Bangladesh Premier League to resume as CWAB and BCB come to mutual ground

The Bangladesh cricketers have withdrawn their boycott after the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and the Cricketers' Welfare Association of Bangladesh (CWAB) reached a mutual ground in a meeting on Thursday, January 15. 

CWAB president Mohammad Mithun and BCB director Iftekhar Rahman spoke to each other during a late-night meeting at the board's premises, and the former called off the boycott after the latter assured him they would speak to Najmul Islam, who is at the heart of the controversy.

"Keeping the greater interest of cricket in mind, we will resume playing tomorrow [on Friday]. They [the BCB] have assured us that they will reach out to him [BCB director M Nazmul Islam] and fulfil our demands as early as possible," Mithun was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.

With the boycott over, the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) is set to resume on Friday after the fixtures between Chattogram Royals and Noakhali Express, as well as Rajshahi Warriors and Sylhet Titans, were postponed on Thursday. Both games will be played on Friday at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium in Mirpur.

Earlier, the CWAB had asked for Nazmul's removal on Thursday to withdraw the boycott. The BCB then removed Islam as chairman of the finance committee, and a decision regarding his position as director will be taken after a review, initiated by the board. The players have also asked for Islam to issue a public apology.

The controversy erupted after Islam was asked to respond to the potential financial setbacks the board may face should Bangladesh not end up participating in the T20 World Cup.

Islam responded by saying that the board wouldn't suffer but the players would, and added that they wouldn't be compensated in case Bangladesh doesn't feature in the ICC event.

"Why [would there be]? Are we asking them for the crores and crores of taka that we are spending on them? Answer me first," Islam was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo. "We are spending so much money on them, they are not being able to do anything. Have we got any international awards? What have we done at any level? Let us now ask them for the money back after every time they couldn't play. Give us back. Why should there even be a question of compensating the players?"