Bangladesh Cricket Board plans a overhaul change in cricket system

Bangladesh Cricket Board plans a overhaul change in cricket system

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Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is determined to form Regional Cricket Associations (RCA) which can decentralize cricket in Bangladesh. The concept of RCA was first introduced by Eddie Barlow, during his stint as coach of Bangladesh in 1999-2000 but it is yet to be implemented.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board looks determined to fulfil the pledge of decentralizing cricket in the country by forming a Regional Cricket Association by two weeks and plans to operate it within a month. The concept of RCA was first introduced by Eddie Barlow during his stint as coach of Bangladesh in 1999-2000 as the South African believed that it is the only way to take the game forward in the country. Recently, Nazmul Hasan, BCB president, initiated the move of forming RCA during the third meeting of the BCB board of directors at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on April 19. Post the meeting Nazmul announced that they have stressed on the implementation of the RCA and are looking forward to starting it by next month.

"We were talking about Regional Cricket Associations for a long time and that is done. The final proposal will arrive within two weeks and we will approve it and I hope that all operations of the RCA can start within a month," Nazmul said, as quoted by Cricbuzz.

"Currently our national academy bears exceptional load as the players from different parts are coming here for quality training. That's why we made it mandatory that every region should have one regional academy to take the load off the national academy."

However, Nazmul during his first tenure also promised to form the RCA but failed to do so as they paid little attention to this area and preferred to keep cricket based in Dhaka. RCA is considered to be one of the major steps towards the game's decentralization at an administrative level in the grassroots and it is believed to have a great impact on enhancing the growth of the sport. 

According to Shafiul Alam Chowdhury Nadel, the BCB councillor from Sylhet Divisional Sports Council, an ad-hoc committee will be formed and later there will be an election to form the body of RCA. '

'There will be an ad-hoc committee that will be directed by BCB. Later there will be an election to form the body of RCA. The ad-hoc committee will appoint an ad-hoc committee of the respective district that falls under their region. Afterwards an election will be held to form the next committee," Nadel said.

Former BCB president Saber Hossain Chowdhury also added that he was surprised to see that it had taken so long to make the move for the RCA while he revealing that it was sad to see such a move couldn’t be implemented from past 18 years. 

"We had taken the initiative in 2000 during an AGM in Cox's Bazar. There is no other way apart from decentralization if you really want the game to develop and grow. I am just surprised that it took so long because this was not only a plan placed 18 years ago. "So it is absolutely essential but it is very sad that it had taken 18 long years,'' said Sabar Hossain.

A BCB director opined that certain directors don't want RCA to see the light because it will decrease the strength and power of Dhaka based club level organizers to a significant amount. When asked whether this delay was due to the unwillingness of Dhaka-based organizers, Saber didn’t hesitate to speak the inside truth and giving the example of BCCI said, despite such a large body it is being run by representatives also. 

''When we initiated this process we struck a balance. There is no denying that Dhaka based organizers do have an impact in developing cricket but it is not Dhaka Cricket Board.  There is a relation lies between numbers and growth so when there will more players involved certainly the development ratio will also go higher accordingly. We had emphasized on the overall structure if RCA and wanted to implement it. See in India the regional body is very strong and the board runs through their representatives. We opted to give the RCA all the divisional stadiums and indoor facilities," the former BCB president clarified.

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