The Cricketers Welfare Association of Bangladesh amended their constitution in order to give membership to women cricketers for the first time in the organization history.
Apart from that, they also increased the number of executive committee members from 11 to 19 during their annual general meeting and council held at the Media Plaza, Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur on Saturday.
“I would be happy if someone new came. They can tell better why they didn’t come. The door was open…I still want to give the responsibility if someone expresses his interest," former national skipper Naimur said after being declared president for the next term.
The full committee wasn’t also revealed on the day but it was learnt that Amir Babu of Madaripur applied for the joint secretary post of CWAB and expressed his willingness to take charge of a divisional committee.
The home of cricket turned into a festival venue on Saturday with the presence of a thousand current and former national and domestic cricketers at the CWAB AGM, which was held after eight years.
The last time the organization held its AGM was back in the 2014-2015 season.
Star cricketers like Mashrafe bin Mortaza, Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah didn’t attend the programme for their respective reasons.
Among the former cricketers, Rouqibul Hasan, Akram Khan, Habibul Bashar, Minhajul Abedin, Athar Ali Khan and Javed Omar were present on the occasion while Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Nigar Sultana Joty, Salma Khatun represented among the current players.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board President Nazmul Hassan Papon attended the programme as the chief guest and he said that he expected more good works from CWAB in the coming years.
“I’m very delighted to see such amount of cricketers for the first time together. CWAB is the only cricketers’ organization which is approved by the BCB. I hope to see a lot of good works from them in future as well,” Nazmul said during the programme.
CWAB also felicitated many former and current cricketers, organisers, coaches, umpires, match referees and journalists for their contribution to the sports during the AGM.
CWAB, which was formed in 2004, hogged all the limelight during the players’ strike in 2019 as the cricketers demanded the abolition of the CWAB committee for their inactivity as an organization.
However, four years later, the committee gets a clean chit from the same group of cricketers who raised a 13-point demand in order to reform Bangladesh cricket.
Meanwhile, former Australian cricketer Lisa Sthalekar, who became the first woman president of the Federation of International Cricketers’ Association (FICA) last year, will arrive in Dhaka today for a two-day visit to Bangladesh. She is expected to leave Dhaka on Tuesday.
