BCB election held amid festivity

The election to choose the board of directors of the Bangladesh Cricket Board was held at the Home of Cricket in Mirpur, Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, amid much fanfare and festivity on Wednesday.

Though the election was mostly a formality as several directors came out uncontested winners from the various regions while some of the contestants withdrew themselves from the race on the night before the election. Aspirant directors from Dhaka Division- Syed Ashfaqul Islam and Khaled Hossain took themselves out of the race after the date of withdrawing the nomination papers.

That paved the way for Naimur Rahman and Tanvir Ahmed to become the BCB directors, making Naimur a BCB director for the third term straight while Tanvir will make his debut as a BCB director.

Masuduzzaman, a councillor from Mohammedan Sporting Club, also took him off from the battle of ballots citing personal reasons from category two, which made the election much easier for the rest of the candidates as only three candidates will fail to make the cut.

In category one, the key contest was between former Bangladesh captain Khaled Mashud Pilot and candidate from Pabna District Sports Association Saiful Alam Swapon Chowdhury, where the latter unofficially triumphed by a 7-2 margin.

Mashud accepted his defeat and told the media that he would help Swapon in every possible way.

“It’s really more difficult to win an off-field cricket match than on-field. The councillors considered him (Swapon) much more capable than me. That’s why they voted for him. I hope he will serve Bangladesh cricket and Rajshahi in a better way. I will try to stay with cricket, I was there, and I shall be with cricket. I came up with a dream but unfortunately could not make it into a reality. Hopefully, I will try to compete in a better way next time,” the former skipper told the media on Wednesday.

“I knew three days ago that I was going to lose, but I did not withdraw from the election because I think that would not be the right thing to do. I accept the results,” he added.

Though Mashud could not secure a spot among the BCB directors for the next tenure, his long-term teammate Khaled Mahmud won against Nazmul Abedeen Fahim from category three.

Fahim, Cricket Advisor or BKSP, wrote on his Facebook account, “Out of 42, I’ve managed only THREE votes still somehow not feeling embarrassed!” That makes Mahmud a winner by securing 37 votes.

As much of the competition was eradicated systematically, there was much celebration among the supporters who came wearing T-shirts of various colours with a faceprint of their candidate on the chest making the election literally a ‘colourful’ one.

It is a standard practice to maintain no visible campaign or publicity activities in the close vicinity of the voting centre, but that was largely violated during the election as supporters staged rallies, shouted slogans, and even a band party was also engaged to play bagpipes and drums even before the official declaration from the election commission came.

Supporters of Naimur Rahman and Nazmul Hasan were more vocal in the crowd as most of them came from their constituencies who demonstrated rallies and shouted slogans in chorus throughout the election day at SBNCS.

From Catagory two, formed with the club representatives of the Dhaka Metropolitan, the unofficial winners are- Nazmul Hasan (53 votes), Gazi Golam Mortuza (53), Najib Ahmed (51), Mahbub Anam (47), Obeid Nizam (51), Ismail Haider Mallick (52), Enayet Husain Siraj (53), Fahim Rahman Sinha (50), Iftekhar Rahman Mithu (50), Monzur Qader (49) and Monjur Alom (46).

Masuduzzaman, who opted out of the election at the last moment, secured five votes. Rafiqul Islam secured 10 votes, and Abdur Rahman received six votes, and Saiful Islam got 10 votes.

Nazmul, the president of the last council of board of directors at the BCB, is all set to return for his third term as he showed victory sign even before the declaration of official results and told the media that the election was participatory and peaceful. “I have never seen such an election of the cricket board in the past two terms like today. The election was fair. There is no doubt about that. It was peaceful. People cast their votes and that is the main thing. I would be happier if I found the election more participatory,” Nazmul told the reporters.