Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) President and former youth and sports minister Nazmul Hasan Papon was a very close person of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina. After Hasina resigned and fled the country on Monday following mass protests and the president dissolved the cabinet and parliament, a question has risen among the cricket fans — ‘Is the BCB president still in the country or not?’
Papon became the sports minister in January this year after he was elected a member of parliament from Kishoreganj. He has been serving as the BCB president since 2012. However, he has not been on the cricket scene for the past week, reports Dainik Amader Shomoy.
Citing a source, cricket news portal Cricinfo reported that Papon has also left the country like Hasina and many other leaders of Awami League. However, several other sources also claimed that Papon was still in the country. That means his whereabouts were yet to be determined until Thursday night.
Apart from Papon, many of the BCB directors — such Naimur Rahman Durjoy, a former MP, AJM Nasir, the former Chittagong city mayor, and Shafiur Rahman Nadel, now a former MP — were directly associated with Awami League.
All of them have been found unreachable since the Hasina government fell in the face a mass uprising this week.
Meanwhile, although he has lost his positions as the MP and sports ministers, Papon will remain the BCB president until 2025 unless authorities concerned are allowed to bring any extraordinary change.
The interim government, which was formed on Thursday with Nobel winner Dr Muhammad Yunus as its chief adviser, will not be able to remove Papon from the position as it will only lead to a ban on Bangladesh cricket by the International Cricket Council (ICC), the highest governing body of international cricket.
Government interference in sport refers to regulatory actions taken by a government to influence decisions made by individuals, groups and organisations on socio-economic matters. Such interferences in the past have led to the provisional or permanent suspension of national sports organisations by international governing bodies.
If the interim government of Bangladesh removes Papon from the BCB president’s position, ICC — in line with its Cricket Code of Conduct — is highly likely to ban BCB over government interference in its activities.
On November 10, 2023, Sri Lanka Cricket, the governing body for cricket in Sri Lanka, was banned by ICC for violation of responsibilities as a member of the council, in particular, "the requirement to manage its affairs autonomously and ensure that there is no government interference in the governance, regulation and/or administration of cricket in Sri Lanka."
Papon was elected BCB president for four years and his current term will end in September 2025. After that, an interim committee can be formed and it will elect the new board president.
Previously, the BCB had interim or ad-hoc committees twice. The first time was in 2007 during the caretaker government’s term. The second time such a committee led BCB was in 2013 during the transfer of power from AHM Mustafa Kamal to Papon.
