Amended BCB constitution declared illegal

The amended constitution of the Bangladesh Cricket Board has been declared illegal by the Dhaka High Court. Delivering the verdict on Sunday, the court said the National Sports Council, the regulatory body of sports associations in Bangladesh, does not hold the authority to make the change. The order implies that the amended constitution of 2008 has been upheld, and the next elections would be held under it.

Justice Sarah Mahbub and Justice Abdur Rab delivered the verdict after hearing the writ petition jointly filed former BCB director Mobasher Hossain and Yusuf Jamil, a local organiser. In December last year, the court had asked the NSC why the amended constitution should not be considered illegal, putting a stay order on the new constitution for three months.

"The NSC, on November 29, through a letter sent an amended constitution to the BCB. That letter along with the amendments has been declared null and void," Mahbub Shafique, one of the lawyers appointed by the petitioners, told reporters. "As per Article 26 of the BCB's constitution the NSC has no authority to amend the constitution. According to Article 11, they have the authority to accept the proposed amendments sent to them by the BCB."

The NSC last year had approved the BCB's new constitution by bringing in changes to the one that had been sent to them after an Extraordinary General Meeting [EGM] on March 1 last year. The new constitution called for an election of the BCB president by the directors. The EGM had decided to elect the president by councillors' votes (members of various clubs, districts, divisions, certain institutions and former players who hold voting rights in BCB elections).

The other changes were made in the number of councillors from among the Dhaka Premier League clubs and by selecting three directors (as opposed to just one) from the NSC itself, to increase the size of the directors' body, and increase the government's influence in the board because the NSC itself is a government agency. The BCB is largely a democratically elected body that has 24 directors (23 elected and, until now, one NSC representative) and a government-appointed president.