BCB's Future In Jeopardy As Bangladesh Government Launches Probe In Election Fraud

The Bangladesh Cricket Board is going through a turmoil as a probe has been launched on the conduct of last year's board elections.

In the light of all the allegation, Bangladesh's sports minister, Aminul Haque has formed an investigation committee on March 11 to look into the allegations of malpractices during last year's board elections.

The committee will present a report in 15 days and it's done, the sports minister will have a meeting with the ICC regarding the future of the cricket board.

"We are all aware of direct interference from our previous government in the BCB elections last year," he said. "I have spoken about it on a number of occasions. Following allegations from Dhaka clubs and the districts, we have formed an investigation committee. I will read their report, but my next step will come after I have spoken to the ICC," said Aminul Haque.

The BCB tried to hit back at the Haque's comments by saying that it all amounts to interference by the government in the functioning of the board.

When the BCB elections were held last year, there were calls of irregularities, manipulation and abuse of power by former Bangladesh star Tamim Iqbal and a significant number of Dhaka officials. There were also major allegations of interference against BCB President Aminul Islam ahead of the polls.

It is understood by ESPN Cricinfo that the BCB President just weeks ago sent a signed letter to the sports ministry asking for a change of councillors from certain districts. Tamim Iqbal also alleged that the BCB pushed the deadlines for filling the nominations twice. He even went on to withdraw his candidature from the elections on October 1 last year.

Haque also said the investigators would look into how district administrators altered their nominations before the elections.

"The investigation committee will speak to the BCB election commissioners, the current board president, BCB directors and the CEO. It will also get in touch with the district administrators who nominated the BCB councillors," Haque said. "There is an allegation that many of these district administrators sent the name of a new councillor after having already nominated one, following receipt of a letter [from Aminul]. I believe there has to be a neutral investigation of these matters."

Inquiry Likely Into T20 World Cup Exit Too

Aminul Haque also confirmed that another investigation committee will be formed after Eid on the World Cup fiasco, which led to the Bangladesh team's ouster from the marquee T20 tournament.

Haque said, "We will try to find out why we didn't go to the World Cup. We have to understand why our sports diplomacy fell short. We will form an investigation committee on this subject after Eid. We have to strengthen our sports diplomacy and make sure we don't repeat this mistake in the future."

In light of Mustafizur Rehman's exit from the IPL, Bangladesh refused to travel to India for the World Cup, citing security reasons. After three weeks of back-and-forth discussions, ICC replaced Bangladesh with Scotland as the former refused to budge from their stance.