Bangladesh players salary to rise but not as demanded

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has confirmed that its cricketers will see a rise in their salaries but it won’t be as per the desire of the players. The cricketers reportedly wanted a rise in their paychecks, as much as three times their current pay, when their contract expired in December last year.

Since then the BCB hasn’t offered the new contract as they wanted to revise the pay. The nation has made giant and rapid strides in the international arena in the past couple of years. They qualified for their first ever quarter-finals in their World Cup history in the ICC World Cup 2015. After a memorable series in Sri Lanka recently last month, where they drew all three series, Bangladesh players certainly need a greater financial incentive.

“The cricket operations committee has discussed the new salary package of the national cricketers, but the board will take the final decision. There is no doubt that it will increase from the last package,” BCB’s cricket operations committee chairman Akram Khan told the reporters yesterday at Mirpur.

Akram stressed on the number of bonuses the team gets. “They (cricketers) are getting enough bonuses; they got it after the 2015 World Cup and the recently concluded Sri Lanka series. We are giving more bonuses than any other board in the world.”

With the advent of T20 leagues like Bangladesh Premier League and Dhaka Premier League, Bangladesh cricketers have seen a rise in their incomes. Akram emphasised that because BCB has most players, apart from the national ones, under their payroll, its tough to strike a balance as far as finances are concerned.

“The number of players we bring to the national payroll is much bigger than the other boards in the world. A player has many sources of income here if he performs well. They have DPL (Dhaka Premier League), BPL (Bangladesh Premier League). Apart from national cricketers, we have 80 to 90 players who are also under BCB’s payroll. We need to keep the balance but one thing is certain; we are keeping the interest of the cricketers in mind,” he continued.

With one of the biggest tournaments of ODI cricket ahead, Akram announced that Bangladesh is scheduled to play practice games against Pakistan and India on May 27 and May 30 respectively. They are scheduled to take part in a 10day training camp at Sussex where they will play 2 more practice games against Duke of Norfolk’s XI and Sussex XI.

Bangladesh will depart for England on April 26. The Champions Trophy, though, will kick start in June and Bangladesh, in the buildup, will play a tri-series hosted in Ireland against New Zealand and the hosts. Citing a long tour, Bangladesh is set to send a big group of players with the team.

“We are however yet to finalise how many additional players will accompany the team,” said Akram.