Why did the government remove Faruque Ahmed from the BCB?

Over the last few days, the country has seen a series of dramas over the removal of Faruque Ahmed from the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB). He has been replaced by Aminul Islam.

Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuyain, the student adviser facing allegations of massive corruption and irregularities, asserts that his poor performance led to the decision.

“Faruque Ahmed was removed in accordance with the BCB constitution and ICC rules. There was no violation of any rules in the replacement of the president. No one faced forcible removal. The government did not remove him. Aminul Islam also became the president of the BCB by the rules,” he told journalists on Saturday.

“After this government came to power, Bangladesh won the Test series against Pakistan. Since then, we have seen a gradual decline in performance. We have to judge by performance, and that performance is not up to expectations.”

Citing mismanagement in the BPL as the major reason behind Faruque’s removal, the adviser said: “We had expressed our concerns to those who were given the team from Durbar Rajshahi in the BPL…that team was given on a personal decision. Even the government had to get involved to pay the players’ salaries and hotel expenses. An embarrassing situation was created then.

“Due to this BPL-centric situation, we could not even bring the chief adviser to the final. This is a shame for us and the board. The situation that has arisen due to many irregularities and negligence of duty is related to Faruque bhai.”

Asif said that Faruque was also not a great team member with the rest of the BCB board directors. “Cricket is a team [work], but there was no team in the BCB. None of the rest of them were comfortable; this is also a big reason for the decline. Overall, we had to come to a decision.”

Faruque Ahmed expressed his disappointment at not having the opportunity to defend himself. But the adviser claimed that he had spoken to Faruque on a personal level.

Asked whether the nomination was a mistake, Asif said: “The NSC (National Sports Council) has the authority to nominate two people; it can nominate them or remove them if it wants. We nominated them from that place. We decided, considering the overall situation.

“We did not remove the president. We withdrew his nomination as a director. As part of this process, his presidency was removed. As per the board’s rules and ICC guidelines, another president has been appointed.”

Aminul in, Faruque out

Aminul Islam became the 16th president of BCB on Friday, a day after the NSC rejected the nomination of Faruque Ahmed.

The NSC made Aminul a director on Friday afternoon. Later, the directors elected him as president at a board meeting in the evening.

Aminul, who scored his first century for Bangladesh in his debut Test, has played for the national team for more than a decade.

He played in 13 Tests and 39 ODIs for the national team, led Bangladesh to its first World Cup in 1999, and retired in 2002. Then he started coaching in the country.

In his maiden press conference, Aminul said: “I received a call from the National Sports Council towards the end of April. They asked if I would accept if given an opportunity. I never looked back. My only goal was to honour this call. I received the call from our respected sports adviser [Asif Mahmud].”

On the night of May 28, the sports adviser told Faruque that the government’s “higher echelons” no longer wanted him to continue as the BCB chief. When Faruque wanted to know the reason, he got no answer.

The next day, Faruque told the media that he would not resign because he was not given any explanation as to why he had to resign.

Shortly after, a no-confidence motion submitted to the adviser by the eight BCB directors was published in the media via social media. Soon after, the report of the fact-finding committee formed on the BPL was published. Although many people were involved in the BPL, the report overwhelmingly blamed Faruque for everything.

Faruque called the allegations “copy-paste” allegations. That is, whatever the directors themselves have done in the last 12 years, they are now adding everything to Faruque’s name. If that is the case, then a no-confidence motion can be brought against these directors too.

Fund transfer controversy

In late April, the transfer of a huge amount of FDR money from various banks to another bank was being discussed for several days.

The BCB explained this transfer on April 26. In a statement sent to the media, the country’s cricket governing body said that the money was withdrawn from a risky bank and reinvested in another bank to ensure the safety of the board’s money.

The BCB says that due to such an initiative, profits from fixed deposits have increased. It has been alleged that false information was deliberately spread to tarnish the image of the board and Faruque Ahmed.

The BCB statement said that as part of giving top priority to protecting financial interests, the board reassessed its banking relationships and decided to engage in transactions only with financial institutions listed in the “Green” and “Yellow” lists as determined by Bangladesh Bank.

To ensure the safety of funds, the BCB withdrew Tk250 crore from banks on the risky list and reinvested Tk238 crore in banks on the “Green” and “Yellow” lists. The remaining Tk12 crore was transferred to designated banks to meet the BCB’s operating expenses.

The BCB also refuted the claims made in the media and other platforms that Faruque Ahmed transferred money on his own.

“There are two board directors as signatories to BCB’s financial transactions with partner banks—Fahim Sinha, chairman of the board’s finance committee, and Mahbubul Anam, chairman of the tender and purchase committee. The BCB president is not a signatory in this regard.”

Since September 2024, BCB has entrusted the responsibility of preserving its funds and fixed deposits to 13 banks, it said, adding that this has resulted in an additional profit of 2-5% from BCB’s fixed deposits compared to before.

In addition, in the last six months, BCB has received financial sponsorship of approximately Tk12 crore from its three current banking partners and assurances of investing about Tk20 crore more for infrastructure development, the statement said.

According to documents provided with the statement, the BCB has withdrawn FDR money from private sector Midland, IFIC, Al Arafa Islami, Exim, UCB and government Janata, Basic and Agrani Banks, which have been deposited in Madhumoti, Eastern, BRAC, Mutual Trust, Prime, Pubali, Meghna, Bengal Commercial, Citizens and City Bank. Both withdrawals and reinvestments have been made from Agrani Bank.