Reports | CWAB President Naimur Rahman willing to resign after player strike

The president of Cricketers’ Welfare Association of Bangladesh, Naimur Rahman has revealed that he is ready to resign from his position owing to the player strike and the demands. The Bangladesh cricketers went on strike for an indefinite time and also handed over their 11 demands which included the resignation of the President and Vice President of the CWAB. 

"I have to spend money from my pocket in CWAB and I am with CWAB for quite some time. It is natural that someone new will come and I am willing to quit but not under any pressure," Rahman told Cricbuzz.

"They want new leadership and it is ok. Let them talk with us and we will give the date of the election. I am busy with a lot of other things so even I cannot give all my time here so we want some other players should also get involved. We had already offered them seven months back and even I personally asked them to take over the responsibility. At that time they did not want to take responsibility and said that we should run it," he added.

The other demands of the players include equal pay as foreign players in the BPL and hike in first-class match fees. They also demanded the return of the private owned franchise-based format of the BPL. 

"The main thing is that CWAB always informed the board about their demands. If they demanded something, we always informed it about the board. They cannot mention any demand that we have not put forward to the board. They never brought anything to us on their own. The demands that they made today to me it looks most of them are logical. But most of them have already been proposed to the board. Some are implemented and something on the process.

"Yes, of course, they demanded the increase in pay. We proposed that it should be increased by 25 per cent and the board increased it by 10 per cent. I proposed in the last co-coordinator meeting that, if there is an airport, players should travel by air there. If necessary, the board can take any airline as a sponsor.

Rahman speculated that the players are being instigated by a third party behind the scenes. He called their actions as a result of their lack of experience and asked them to approach the board before taking such direct actions. 

"Someone is there. Because they have chosen such a time. The timing is not right. Plus the demands they have presented, they should have submitted it to the board first, they should have decided whether they would boycott or go on strike. They did not demand to the board or CWAB first," he said.