New BCB boss Tamim boosts pay for first-class and women cricketers

The newly appointed Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president, Tamim Iqbal, announced a significant pay rise for first-class cricketers and women’s domestic players, marking a major overhaul of long-standing salary structures on Wednesday.

The former national skipper admitted after the board meeting that he was taken aback after reviewing the existing pay scale.

“To be honest, I was personally quite surprised today after reviewing some of the figures,” he told reporters.

Under the revised structure, salaries for players across all eight National Cricket League teams have been sharply increased.

Category A players will now earn Tk65,000 per month, up from Tk35,000, while Category B players will receive Tk50,000 instead of Tk30,000. Category C players will see their salaries rise from Tk25,000 to Tk40,000.

The youngest BCB president described the previous structure as inadequate.

“Over the past three to four years, there has been almost no increment. I believe this is highly underpaid. They put in immense effort, and it is because of them that we have this cricket structure today,” he said.

Match fees for first-class cricket have also been increased to Tk1 lakh per match, up from the previous Tk75,000 range.

The revised payments will be effective from 1 January, with players set to receive adjusted earnings retrospectively once contracts are finalised.

However, the 37-year-old has also addressed the long-standing pay disparity in women’s domestic cricket.

From now on, women players will receive Tk10,000 for T20s, Tk15,000 for ODIs, and Tk20,000 for longer-format matches, a significant jump from the previous Tk8,000 range.

Women domestic contract holders will also see their monthly salary rise from Tk30,000 to Tk40,000, with the new president stressing the need to maintain a reasonable gap with national contracts.