Cricketers’ match fees, salaries increased

The second meeting of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) ad-hoc committee took several important decisions, including increasing the salaries of male and female cricketers and announcing a standing committee. The meeting was held on Wednesday (April 8).

The central contract salary of male cricketers has significantly increased. The BCB contracted domestic players’ salaries were increased from Tk 30,000 to Tk 40,000. Tamim mentioned that as the lowest-graded centrally contracted players get Tk 60,000 monthly, the domestic players’ salaries couldn’t be increased more than Tk 40,000 to keep a gap.

For men’s cricketers, category ‘A’, ‘B’, and ‘C’ players would get Tk 65,000, Tk 50,000, and Tk 40,000, respectively. Previously, these were Tk 35,000, Tk 30,000, and Tk 25,000, respectively.

There have also been positive changes in women's cricket. The women players would get Tk 10,000 for a T20 match, while an ODI match would bring them Tk 15,000 each. For a longer version match, the match fee was increased to Tk 20,000. In addition, the number of women cricketers in the central contract has also been increased.

Tamim also said that these increments would be backdated to January this year.

The four-day or longer version match fee was also increased to Tk 1 lakh, which was previously Tk 70,000.

The responsibilities of the standing committee were distributed in the meeting. Tamim Iqbal himself will look after the working committee and facilities department. Fahim Sinha will look after the game development; Rafiqul Islam will handle grounds; Tanzil Chowdhury will handle age groups; Salman Ispahani will handle marketing and discipline; and Rushna Imam will handle the women’s wing and medical complaints.

Ishrafil Khasru was given finance and welfare; Saeed Ibrahim security and tender and purchases; Minhajul Abedin tournament committee; Mirza Yasir logistics; Athar Ali Khan umpires committee.

Tamim also said that they would soon sit with the clubs to commence the Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League.

However, no one is being given responsibility for cricket operations for now.

Tamim also expressed his desire to quickly return domestic cricket to the field. He said that there are plans to meet all the clubs soon to start the Premier League. He mentioned that matches will also be organized by renting the field of private academies if necessary.

Tamim also said that in order to help the government save electricity during the upcoming New Zealand series, a decision is being made to start the ODI match at 11:00 am or 11:30 am and the T20 match at 2:00 pm or 2:30 pm.