Shahabuddin Ahmad
Nazmul Hasan Papan, son of late Zillur Rahman, President of Bangladesh, was elected as an MP from his father’s constituency after he became president. He is currently an employee of Beximco Pharmaceuticals was nominated as President of Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) when Mustafa Kamal Lotus, MP, resigned after being appointed by the ICC as its Vice-Presiden.
Papan also heads the Adhoc body appointed on 27 November 2012 mandated to hold an election of the BCB within 3 months, which have passed long back but election has not been held. It is now learnt that Papan with the help his supporters has got the constitution governing the elections rules of BCB amended, which was duly approved by the National Sports Council bypassing the BCB General Council for holding the election. This prompted Papan’s opponents to file a case against the amendments. The court, in its latest order has asked BCB to hold the elections on the basis of the so called amendments engineered by vested quarters.
Saber Hossain Chowdhury, MP for two terms and a past President of BCB has now decided to contest the elections likely to be held soon. Saber’s entry in the election arena has made Papan and his supporters aggressive and they have been talking ill about the past administration of the BCB and have announced to disclose the wrong doings of his opponents after the election is over. Saber Hossain Chowdhury, meanwhile, has contested Papan’s threats. He has appeared in talk shows of the television channels and invited Papan to have a face to face talk regarding the future election, the past allegations and the future program of the BCB. But it appears that Papan is avoiding such an interesting debate.
In the meantime Papan has been holding meetings with some of the representatives of the cricket teams drawn from the Cricket Associations from various parts of the country to show his strength. It was countered by Saber Hossain Chowdhury at a press conference and he has asked for a level playing field before holding the elections.
It is learnt that Papan, besides abusing many facilities of his office for the election purpose, which is unethical, immoral and undignified, has also distributed favours to his supporters. The election has become very interesting because big sponsorship money will flow into the BCB when in 2014 the T20 World Cup for both men and women will be played in Bangladesh. Besides, huge funds will be available with the BCB to meet costs of various construction projects.
In the meantime, Papan has awarded contracts for development of stadiums at Dhaka and Chittagong where the matches of T20 World Cup will be played and awarded another contract for construction of cricket stadium in Cox’s Bazar for the women’s T20 World Cup at an estimated cost of Tk. 500 million without calling tenders which is a gross irregularity. Besides, the land on which the stadium is being constructed belongs to the Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation and does not belong to the BCB.
Knowledgeable quarters questions the constructing a temporary stadium in Cox’s Bazar at a very high cost as Cox’s Bazar is known to be a strong hold of the fundamentalists who think that women should not be participating in sports. Saber is a self made politician and during his incumbency as the BCB President, Bangladesh was awarded the Test and ODI playing status.
Professionals think that a level playing field should be ensured to hold the next elections likely to be contested by both Saber and Papan, so that ICC or the government at some later stage does not raise objections regarding the result of the election. This precaution is also necessary because Bangladeshi cricket has already got a bad image as Ashraful has openly confessed that he was involved in match fixing and it is suspected that some more names may come out.
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The writer is the Editor, The Travel World
Source: Weekly Holiday
