Bangladesh players ready to end boycott if BCB director makes public apology

Bangladesh's cricketers continue to insist they will end their playing boycott if BCB director Nazmul Islam makes a public apology for the disparaging remarks he made against players this week. The cricketers issued a statement on Thursday evening, on a day of some drama in which games in the BPL and Dhaka Cricket League were called off because of the boycott.

While the BCB has already removed Islam as the chairman of the board's finance committee, the players still want him to be removed as a board director. And ESPNcricinfo understands that the demand for a public apology remains a point of contention between the cricketers, led by Mohammad Mithun as head of the Cricketers' Welfare Association of Bangladesh (CWAB), and BCB president Aminul Islam.

In a phone call on Thursday evening, Aminul, who is also a former Bangladesh captain, reportedly said that Nazmul could only apologise in "a closed-door meeting". The group of players he spoke to, including several seniors, were left frustrated by Aminul's stance.

Following the call, CWAB sent out a press release saying it has communicated to the BCB that the cricketers will play the BPL matches on Friday, and withdraw the cricket boycott in Bangladesh, if BCB director Islam apologises in public. The CWAB statement also said it was okay with the BCB taking the time needed to go through the process of removing Islam as a board director as well.

"We welcome the decision to remove BCB director M Nazmul Islam from the board's finance committee," the CWAB said. "Since he has been given a showcause notice and since the BCB has asked for time due to procedural reasons regarding his directorship, we want to give him that time. However, we hope that the process will continue.

"In addition, since Director M Nazmul Islam has publicly spoken insulting words about the cricketers, we hope that he will publicly apologise. We have informed the BCB that we are ready to return to the game from Friday if he publicly apologises and the process for his directorship is ongoing."

The onus is now on the BCB to take this process closer to resolution though some of those present on the call with Aminul have told ESPNcricinfo that they are not hopeful. There are two more BPL matches scheduled for Friday: Dhaka Capitals vs Rangpur Riders at 2pm local time and Chattogram Royals vs Rajshahi Warriors at 6pm local time. *However, the BCB issued a short notice late on Thursday night that the games that were scheduled for January 15 will be played on January 16 and those scheduled for January 16 and 17 will be postponed by a day. It also said the Eliminator and Qualifier 1 have been moved from January 19 to 20.

Earlier on Thursday, after the first BPL game had been boycotted and before the BCB removed Islam as chairman of the finance committee, Mithun had held a press conference in Dhaka where he outlined the players' stance.

"The discussion among the players has been that since yesterday night, we have been told 'procedure, procedure, procedure' at every step," he said. "They [BCB] had come with a solution but we didn't agree. After that, they wanted 48 hours for their procedure, so I spoke to the players and after discussion our question is 'after 48 hours of time taken, if he doesn't resign, then too we will stop playing.

"We have protested and therefore the first game today won't happen. If we even play today's second game, but after 48 hours if he is not removed, then ultimately the game will stop again. Now we will go only on one condition, and that is if BCB comes to you guys and gives a commitment that they guarantee that this man will not be part of the BCB within 48 hours, and if he is part of the BCB, then cricketers' decision to not play won't earn them any punishments. And that BCB will take all responsibility.

"If BCB officially declares this, then we will move ahead, we think. We have already told them this, but we haven't received such confirmation from them yet."

*The story was updated on January 15 at 1830 hrs GMT after the BCB statement