Faruque Ahmed, the president of the Bangladesh Cricket Board, declared his intention to run in the upcoming Board election, which is set for October of this year.
On August 20, Faruque, a former national cricket player and head selector, took over as board president. Hasan had left the country due to political unrest brought on by the student uprising. Nazmul was compelled to leave his position as a member of the Parliament who belonged to the Awami League, which was the dominant party at the time.
Faruque has been the target of criticism on numerous occasions since assuming control. Due to disagreements with the BCB manager, Nazmul Abedin, a well-known local coach who was named by the National Sports Council (NSC) as one of its new directors along with Faruque, has often threatened to resign.
Since then, Faruque has been blamed for a number of incidents, including match-fixing scandals and financial problems, which compelled BCB to provide clarification.
“I think there is a section who had done corruption in the Board and are still trying to demean me. What is the easiest job for them (as I understand) is that if there are four columns written against me based on lies, they think that I am such a man that I will resign. So there is a game that they are playing intentionally and now, I am thinking I will try to fight in the election because the problem will not be solved if I quit,” Faruque was quoted on Khaled Mohiuddin’s show Thikana on Tuesday (April 29).
When questioned if he would still be able to serve as the president of the Board once the newly elected administration took power, Faruque played it cool and refused to reveal much about his election strategy. This will be a fresh problem given that Faruque was selected under unusual circumstances, but experience indicates that in these situations, incoming governments typically support the current BCB president.
“I think you will have to leave it for another episode (future) as you will need time to understand the complexities of the election,” he said.
“All I can say is that if I stay in this position, I will try to eliminate corruption from cricket till my last day,” he added.
Faruque was the BCB chief selector for two times, from 2003 to 2007 and from 2013 to 2016. He played seven One-Day Internationals for Bangladesh. He had left his position as chief selector before serving out his second term. This was due to his inability to accept the three-member selection panel’s expansion.
