BCB doubles domestic match fees following CWAB demand

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has decided not to organise the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) this season, a move that raised concerns among domestic cricketers as the tournament is one of their biggest sources of income.

To address the issue, the Cricketers’ Welfare Association of Bangladesh (CWAB) held several rounds of talks with the BCB, focusing on ways to ensure players can earn a decent income from other domestic competitions.

At a meeting with CWAB on Tuesday, BCB president Tamim Iqbal promised to increase match fees in domestic cricket. The issue was discussed again at Thursday’s BCB working committee meeting, where the board approved a major increase across all three formats.

Speaking after the meeting, Tamim confirmed that match fees in BCB-organised domestic tournaments have been doubled.

The last major increase came in 2019 following the players’ movement led by Shakib Al Hasan. During the tenure of the interim government, National Cricket League (NCL) match fees were increased from Tk50k-60k to Tk80k. After becoming BCB president, Tamim had said he wanted to raise first-class match fees to Tk1 lakh

Thursday’s decision went even further, with match fees in the NCL and other first-class competitions now increased to Tk1.5 lakh

For one-day matches in BCB tournaments, including the NCL and Bangladesh Cricket League (BCL), the fee has been raised from Tk50k to Tk1 lakh, while T20 match fees have doubled from Tk40k to Tk80k.

The decision comes as welcome news for domestic cricketers ahead of a busy season featuring competitions in all three formats.

“National team players will also benefit financially from playing domestic cricket,” Tamim said.

“However, they remain busy throughout the year and also need rest. If there are no workload concerns, I am sure they will play.”

Tamim said the decision was aimed at providing players with long-term financial security rather than simply compensating for the absence of the BPL this season.

“If we only wanted to keep the players happy, we could have increased the match fees for just one year,” Tamim stated.

“We could have brought the fees back to the old rate if the BPL returned next season. But our aim was to do something that would help players for a long period.”

He added that a cricketer who regularly plays domestic cricket could earn a substantial amount even without representing the national team.

According to Tamim, such a player could earn between Tk30 lakh and Tk40 lakh in a season.