Bulbul replaces Faruque as BCB president

Former national skipper Aminul Islam Bulbul was elected as the new board president of Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) yesterday, ending weeks of speculation about him replacing former president Faruque Ahmed.

Following the National Sports Council's (NSC) decision to revoke Faruque's BCB directorship on Thursday night -- which came after the majority of the board directors expressed no confidence in him, and the review of the BPL fact-finding committee's report -- it was quite evident that Bulbul would take the job. 

Bulbul, who played 13 Tests and 39 ODIs between 1988 and 2002, was recently offered a role in the BCB by Youth and Sports Adviser Asif Mahmud and after a series of incidents at BCB in recent times, he became the 17th BCB president and only the second cricketer after Faruque at the post.

"For the first time, I got a call from the NSC at the end of April. It was like, 'We will give you an opportunity,  will you accept it?' After receiving that call, I didn't look back," Bulbul told reporters in a press conference in Mirpur after he was elected as the BCB boss during an emergency board of directors' meeting yesterday.

"I had a target to honour that call. Today, our honourable board of directors elected me as the president… We will try to take cricket in Bangladesh forward," he added.

Bulbul, who was not a running BCB councillor, was nominated a councillor by the NSC in place of Sheikh Hamim Hasan earlier on Thursday night, and ahead of yesterday's board meeting, Bulbul was nominated as a BCB director by the NSC in place of Faruque.

Later in the board meeting, he was elected as the president by the other nine board directors. Also, board directors Nazmul Abedeen Fahim and Fahim Sinha were elected as senior vice-president and vice-president, respectively.

"We received two letters from the NSC yesterday [Thursday]. One was regarding the change of one of their councillors, naming Aminul Islam Bulbul as the new nominee. The other letter was the withdrawal of their previously nominated director, Faruque Ahmed," BCB's media and communication committee chairman Iftekhar Rahman Mithu said.

Meanwhile, Bulbul said that he came to the BCB to play a quick T20 innings as he is aware of the forthcoming election, and that he took up the job as a short-term assignment.

"As the time is limited, I'm here to play a quick T20 innings. I want to play a good T20 innings, which you all will remember.

"I don't want to comment on the past. I can say I'm not here for a long time. There is no exact timeframe, but I have a different agenda. As I work in cricket development, I want to continue it. I have taken this role as a short-term assignment," he said, adding that he would like to use his 19 years of knowledge of working at the International Cricket Council (ICC) and Asian Cricket Council (ACC) in Bangladesh cricket.