BCB doesn’t have any demand from the government budget
Image : Collected
|| CF Correspondent ||
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury said that the board hasn’t received any sports allocation from the fiscal budget for the past 10 years but got facilities.
Remembering the early days when the BCB head office was on the second floor of Bangabandhu National Stadium (BNS) in Gulisthan. Nizamuddin had to go to the National Sports Council (NSC) at least once a month to get the salary of Eddie Barlow for the then head coach of Bangladesh Cricket Team.
Since joining the post of administrative manager in late 1999, till now he has been promoted over the past two decades and is now the chief executive officer of the BCB. He knows very well about the difference in the allocation of sports budget for the game at this time.
“At that time I had to go to the NSC and bring Eddie Barlow’s salary. If it was a little late to get the allocation, the President had to arrange the salary [which was also adjusted after getting it from NSC]. We now give a few times more salary to the current foreign expert coaches than what was paid to Barlow with,” Nizamuddin Chowdhury said to a Bengali daily.
The country’s richest federation is now so self-sufficient that it does not skimp to spend on foreign coaches. BCB now spends from its own source of income and does not even expect to be allocated in the sports budget.
But it was not the case before, when the board had to depend on the NSC’s to clear the salary of former coach Barlow. At that time, the allocation for cricket in the sports budget was also not so much. Nizamuddin can’t even remember when that allocation stopped.
“I don’t remember the figure clearly. As far as I can remember, it was not less than Tk. two or three lakh. It was more than that. We don’t get anything right now. Not a single penny. After Mahmudur Rahman [former chief executive] left, his responsibilities were given to me. I follow it from another position [General Manager]. Then another CEO [Manjur Ahmed] came. When he died after the 2011 World Cup, I was made acting CEO,” Chowdhury said.
“I became a full-fledged CEO after the 2014 World Twenty20. It is certain that there was no allocation for the past 10 years, since in this post. It may have been shut down automatically at some point before,” he added.
As a footnote, however, he recalled an allocation,
“Cricket is also being given a fund of Tk. one crore over the last few years as part of age-based arrangements for various sports. But where our budget for the last fiscal year was more than Tk. 180 crore, Tk one crore is nothing. If you want to know more details, you can contact our development manager,” he added.
Abu Emam Mohamamd Kawser, the senior national manager of the BCB Game Development said that the figure has been received only once so far.
“We’ve received it only once in the last five years, in 2016. The amount was about Tk. 80 lakh, Kawser said.
The BCB chief executive, however, said he has no hesitation in acknowledging that he has received such allocations sometimes.
“We haven’t received any money directly. However, the government has spent a lot of money on infrastructure before the 2011 World Cup. The stadiums we use cost billions of Taka a year to maintain. NSC does not do these. If a major overhaul is needed, they may do so. But even if they do, some part of the cost they take from us,” he added.
The highest cricket administration in the country, which is known to run on its own, has no need to allocate money in the sports budget.
Nizamuddin said that they have an FDR of more than Tk. 600 crore so they have no intention of harming other games by asking for something.
“Since we can spend from our own income, the BCB does not nurture the mentality of asking for something from the government budget. By not asking we are also contributing to other sports. If we want, the government will surely give us. In that case, they may cut the budget of another sport. It will also affect the overall development of sports in the country,” Nizamuddin concluded.
