Cricket
A three-member probe team collected documents and records following allegations against the board
DHAKA (Web Desk) – The Bangladesh government’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) raided the BCB’s headquarters on Tuesday to collect documents and records following allegations against the cricket board. The three-member probe team held a press briefing following their raid, alongside BCB chief executive Nizam Uddin Chowdhury.
The allegations include financial misappropriation of ticket sales during BPL and irregularity in expenses for cricket-related activities around a political programme called “Mujib 100” (to celebrate the 100th birth anniversary of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman) in 2020 but which got cancelled due to the Covid pandemic. The ACC team also looked into details about the rule change in Dhaka’s third division qualification competition. All three allegations fall under the time when Nazmul Hassan was the BCB president.
“We will file a report in the enforcement unit after verifying all these documents,” ACC’s assistant director Al Amin said. “The ACC will then decide what the next step will be. Every one of the ACC’s raid is due to a specific complaint. We collect complaints from the media. We have a committee that verifies these complaints. Once it is approved, we go on a raid. It is the same in this case.”
The ACC officials said they are looking into the financial anomaly in the BPL’s ticket sales since the third edition. Ticket sales have earned the BCB around BDT 15 crore (1.2 million USD approx.) from the eight seasons, but in the eleventh season alone it was BDT 13 crore (1.07 million USD approx.).
“One of BCB’s revenue streams is ticket sales. There was 15 crore in eight years, and then 13 crore in a single year. We are trying to collect documents to find out what the anomaly is,” Al Amin said.
He added that there are allegations that the “Mujib 100” programme also had some financial anomalies, including misappropriation of funds of around BDT 17 crore (1.4 million USD approx.).
“There’s also some anomaly in the expenses shown in the “Mujib 100″ programme. It showed expenses worth 25 crore, but actually it was around 17 crore. There’s allegations that they didn’t show the expenses of almost 19 crore. We have asked for those documents and records from the finance department,” he said.
The ACC has also spoken to the BCB about their rule change in the Dhaka Third Division Qualifying tournament, which was introduced in the late 1990s. It is the non-league tournament from where the top two teams enter the third division league, the lowest in the Dhaka league pyramid. During Nazmul’s reign, the BCB hiked the team’s entry fee to BDT 5 lakh (4,000 USD approx.) from BDT 50,000 (412 USD approx.).
Since these were amateur clubs, many refrained from taking part in the competition. However, some clubs paid the hiked fee to participate. They played out a knockout scenario to determine which clubs entered the league; sometimes only two paid the fees which meant direct entry into the Dhaka Third Division League.
“Among the specific complaints is the illegal money involved in the Third Division Qualifying competition,” Al Amin said. “We found out how the teams were selected before 2023. Their competition fees used to be BDT five lakh. Only two or three teams would apply for it, and from them the BCB would choose one or two teams. When the fee was reduced to BDT one lakh, sixty clubs applied to play in the competition.
“Our point is that, why did only two or three teams apply in previous years, and why did 60 teams apply this time? We have collected documents. There could be personal influence in the selection process of the Third Division Qualifying tournament. We found out that neighbourhood clubs found it hard to meet the criteria set for playing in the tournament.
“We have collected the list of teams who took part in the Third Division Qualifying tournament in the last five to seven years. We will compare the requirements to participate in this competition between this year and those from previous years. You must have seen that two to four clubs used to take part in this tournament. This year, 60 teams participated. We can deduce that there was no independence of participation in the previous years. There must have been some pressure that prevented them from participating in the tournament. We are trying to find out why.”
BCB’s chief executive Chowdhury vowed to cooperate with the ACC, saying he would direct the relevant departments to help them with documents.
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