TOP BANGLADESH PLAYERS PROTEST AGAINST CRICKET BOARD; BCCI PRESIDENT GANGULY RESPONDS

While Bangladesh cricket team is scheduled to play their first Test Championship against India in the month of November, the top players led by Shakib Al Hassan staged a protest against Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) on October 21 (Monday). Reportedly, their strike emphasised an 11-point demand to BCB including the increase in the salary of all the players.

"The cricketers will boycott all types of cricketing activities until the demands are met," Shakib was quoted as saying by bdnews24.com.

The demands include immediate resignation of the president and general secretary of cricketers welfare association of Bangladesh, cancelling the franchise-based model and increase in pay scale.

Shakib Al Hasan also stressed the importance of improving cricket in Bangladesh which also includes providing a good environment for the future. Apart from Shakib Al Hassan other top cricketers such as Tamil Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahman were also present at the strike.

Interestingly India's BCCI president-elect Sourav Ganguly who played his first test match as a test captain against Bangladesh responded over the issue. He said though BCCI did not have anything to do with BCB's internal issues, he will write to Bangladesh Cricket Board personally as BCCI president and invite the team for the test championship. Bangladesh played its first Test match against India at Dhaka's Bangabandhu Stadium in November 2000.