Bangladesh Cricket Board president AHM Mustafa Kamal (C) speaks during its extraordinary general meeting at a city hotel on Thursday. — New Age photo

The Bangladesh Cricket Board brought some changes in its constitution at an extraordinary general meeting on Thursday that include the abolishment of the clauses that gave the former cricketers councillorship in the board.
The board approved the abrogation of clauses 9.3.8 and 9.3.9 from the BCB constitution after an intense debate among the councillors about it.
The former 15 cricketers, who were allowed to become the councilors of the BCB, will lose their councillorship the National Sports Council approves the amended constitution.
‘Every councillor should come from an institution,’ Dewan Shafiul Arefin, head of the constitutional amendment committee, told reporters.
‘It has been done to avoid nepotism in choosing the 15 former cricketers,’ said Dewan.
When asked whether the cricketer-councillors of the board were creating any problem, the man behind abolishing the clauses said they were not helping it either.
‘The board didn’t benefit from their presence either,’ said Dewan.
‘If they want to help the board in improving the game there are 100 doors open for them but if they want to be councillors they have to come from an institution,’ said Dewan.
The board also termed the Cricketers Welfare Association of Bangladesh as not an affiliated body of the board and decided that if they can prove their affiliation then they can also have one councillor from among them.
However, the five representatives of the NSC did not lose their councillorships.
President AHM Mustafa Kamal, who had earlier claimed on several occasions that there would be no such changes as long as he was in the chair, also moved away from his stance.
‘It is a very sensitive issue. But the decision is made so that when a cricketer becomes a councillor he has to have the organisational capacity as he will represent an organisation,’ said Kamal.
The EGM also approved the inclusion of the regional cricket associations in the BCB constitution. The EGM  was followed by the annual general meeting where the budgets for the years 2009-10 and 2010-11 were approved.
The EGM also approved to have an election for the post of the board president in line with the recommendation of the International Cricket Council.
Currently the BCB president is nominated by the government.
‘We will send the amended constitution to the NSC and after its approval we will hold an election,’ said Kamal.
The amendment proposed in the draft constitution for abolition of post of the chief executive officer and replace it with the chief operating officer was also approved.
‘Everything in the board is run by the standing committee and to stop any sort of conflict between the members of the standing committee and the CEO, so it has been replaced as the COO will have executive power,’ said Kamal.
The post of the chief financial officer was also abolished as the finance committee chief and the COO will look into the financial matters.