The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) election process has come under renewed scrutiny after several high-profile candidates, including Tamim Iqbal, withdrew their nominations, prompting fresh calls for the polls to be rescheduled.
The final list of candidates was confirmed by the election commission on Wednesday afternoon. However, just hours before the announcement, Tamim and a number of other heavyweights pulled out. On Thursday, Rafiqul Islam Babu, another key figure to withdraw, visited the BCB office and publicly urged for the election date to be pushed back.
“Through proper regulations, the current election date can be rescheduled to resolve this crisis. If that happens, those who were excluded due to technicalities or whose councillorships were cancelled would still have an opportunity to take part,” Rafiqul told reporters.
He went on to suggest that an ad-hoc committee could temporarily oversee the board until a new election date is finalised. “I don’t know if it’s possible, but things could be managed with an ad-hoc committee for a short period. For the sake of cricket, and to overcome this current impasse, that might be the way forward. These are the appeals we want to place before our guardian, the sports adviser. He will take an appropriate decision so that cricket does not suffer.”
According to the official schedule, the deadline for withdrawing candidacy was 12 noon on Wednesday. Tamim arrived at the BCB headquarters in the morning to formally step aside, triggering a domino effect. By the end of the day, a total of 15 candidates had withdrawn, several of them previously seen as strong contenders for director roles.
List of withdrawn candidates
Tamim Iqbal (Old DOHS), Rafiqul Islam Babu (Indira Krira Chakra), Masuduzzaman (Mohammedan), Saeed Ibrahim Ahmed (Fair Fighters), Mir Helal (Chattogram District), Syed Burhan Hossain Pappu (Tejgaon Cricket Academy), Israfil Khasru (Exume Cricketers), Sabbir Ahmed Rubel (Progoti Seba Sangha), Touhid Tarek (Pabna), Asif Rabbani (Shinepukur), Siraj Uddin Mohammad Alamgir (Category-3), Yasir Abbas (Azad Sporting), Fahim Sinha (Surjo Tarun), Saiful Islam Sopu (Gopibagh Friends), Omar Sharif Mohammad Imran (Bangladesh Boys).
