'It is totally performance-based' - Bangladesh's sports adviser on Faruque's removal

Bangladesh's sports adviser Asif Mahmud has said that the ICC welcomed the change in leadership in the BCB after they were communicated of the decision. On Friday, the BCB's board of directors elected Aminul Islam as the new president after the sports ministry removed Faruque Ahmed as its representative.

"We have properly contacted the ICC. The new president also worked in the ICC for a long time," Asif said in a press briefing in Dhaka on Saturday. "There's no communication gap. ICC knows the situation here, so they have welcomed the decision."

Asif said that Faruque didn't perform well in the nine months that he was in charge, while he was also linked to irregularities in the sports ministry's fact-finding committee report. Eight BCB directors also sent a no-confidence motion against Faruque, which the sports ministry considered in its decision as well, Asif added.

"We have seen in the report from the BPL's fact-finding committee that there were instances of irregularity and negligence of responsibility," he said. "We found Faruque's link with them. Eight out of the nine BCB directors sent the NSC (the National Sports Council) a no-confidence motion."

The BCB constitution allows the sports ministry to have a quota of five councillors (members) and two board directors. The ministry had nominated Faruque and Nazmul Abedeen Fahim as their directors on August 21 last year, shortly after which the BCB directors unanimously elected Faruque as the new president. Nine months later, the ministry removed Faruque, and replaced him with Aminul. Asif said that the ministry has the right to pick and drop their nomination as councillor or director.

"I spoke to Faruque bhai personally. It is not like we removed him because we found corruption charges against him," he said. "It is totally performance-based. Just like a selection committee wouldn't pick an out-of-form player, it is the same for us.

"NSC has the jurisdiction to give or take a [BCB director] nomination. We didn't remove the president. We took his directorship, which is why his presidency was gone. We nominated another director. The board followed the ICC guideline and BCB constitution to elect the next president."

Asif said that Faruque's decision-making during the BPL, particularly in selecting the Durbar Rajshahi franchise for the 2025 edition, was costly. He said that the payment issue was so embarrassing that Dr Muhammad Yunus, the country's Chief Advisor, didn't attend the BPL final.

"The BPL's fact-finding committee spoke to BPL's stakeholders, including Nazmul Abedeen Fahim, the BPL's member-secretary. The sports ministry had informed our concerns about the owners of Durbar Rajshahi," Asif said. "[Selecting them as a franchise] was an individual's decision. In the end, even the government had to be involved to solve the players' payment and hotel bill issue of that team. It was an undesirable situation. Our head of government couldn't attend the BPL final, which was quite shameful for everyone."