No conspiracy; players fed up, says Jamiluddin
With the way things are going, Jamiluddin believes it would be ideal for the senior BCB members and the senior cricketers to talk face to face about the issues and come up with a solution.
Former BCB official Khondoker Jamiluddin spoke exclusively to The Business Standard about the Bangladesh Cricket Board's (BCB) reaction to the cricketers' boycott.
The BCB President Nazmul Hassan Papon believes that there is a conspiracy behind the players' boycott.
Jamiluddin, however, quashed such theories and said "there is no conspiracy" and the players presented the 11-point demands because they were "fed up".
Additionally, he believes that the players could have tried to speak to the BCB beforehand and if they didn't get the BCB's support, then they could have gone for a strike.
"The players are right, but this could have been done differently. There is a distance between the board and the players and it is a failure of communication," Jamiluddin said.
He feels that the players might not have been in a position where they could have spoken to the board but he expected the senior players to do so.
"They are probably not in a position to sit and talk with the board. The likes of Tamim [Iqbal] and Shakib [Al Hasan] who have years of experience should know by now how to deal with the board."
Jamiluddin, however, went on to explain that perhaps the players feel that the necessary changes would not occur if they didn't take such steps.
"The players probably know that nothing will change if they don't give BCB an ultimatum," Jamiluddin said.
With the way things are going, Jamiluddin believes it would be ideal for the senior BCB members and the senior cricketers to talk face to face about the issues and come up with a solution.
"The BCB should listen to the players and senior officials should sit with the senior players to come up with a solution.
"The board should treat the players as their own children and take care of them. Without the players, there is no BCB, and there is no cricket," Jamiluddin said.
With the players' relations with the BCB potentially destabilised, Jamiluddin warned that the BCB must act carefully and intelligently and not punish the players for their demands.
"The BCB should hold no grudges against the players as it will not lead to anything good for our cricket. If the BCB does not bring the players back on their side, they risk doing long-term damage to the country's cricket," he added.
With the Bangladesh tour of India coming up and possibly being under threat because of the players' boycott, Jamiluddin urged the BCB to "do whatever possible to make the tour to india happen."
"The ICC [International Cricket Council] will not take this well if the tour to India does not happen, and will be a massive blow to Bangladesh cricket," he said.
Jamiluddin feels that the ICC might even ban Bangladesh from international cricket if the board and the players do not sort out their issues and the tour to India does not happen.
"Everyone is a part of the Test championship, so the ICC might have to take some drastic measures if things do not go as planned," he concluded.