BCB Appoints First Female Director, Replacing Isfak Ahsan in Push for Gender Equality

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is all set to get its first female director. The National Sports Council is expected to replace M Isfak Ahsan, who is one of the representatives of the sports regulatory board with a woman director.

Aminul Islam, on Monday, was re-elected as BCB presidentbut shortly after the 25 directors names were published NSC decided to withdraw the name of Isfak. "NSC is expected to nominate a woman representative in the board to replace Isfak as a board director," a BCB official confirmed to Cricbuzz.

Aminul indicated in the first presser following the election that they are eyeing to include women as directors to bring in some form of gender balance within the board.

"Look, the law in cricket changes every year. With the new law, playing conditions also change. But our constitution doesn't change. So we will try to bring some changes," Aminul said after the election.

"The biggest change we should bring is that our cricket board is male dominated. We need female directors to create gender equality. We need independent directors. We will work a lot on that."

Aminul went on to insist that he decided to continue as president due to his deep passion for the development of cricket in the country.

"I have fallen in love with the development of Bangladesh cricket," he said. "I came for a short term, and that short term was my plan. But when I started doing small tasks through a fruitful program and began to see success, I didn't think of anything else. I have stayed with the goal of serving more for my country.

"Our cricket comes before all our posts. We will be committed, Inshallah, to how we can take this cricket forward," he said.

Bulbul invited all the stakeholders to contribute to Bangladesh cricket, whether they are part of the board or not.

Recently, Tamim Iqbal had decided to withdrawfrom the elections citing government interference. Many clubs officials, too, decided to boycott the elections as part of their protest against what they felt to be was an unfair election.

"Regardless of who is on the board, we will invite everyone to work with us and help take Bangladesh cricket forward. Bangladesh belongs to everyone. We will soon go to them (protesting clubs) and ask them to cooperate.

"The board's responsibility is one: to take Bangladesh cricket forward. That is our focus, and we will work with everyone to do it," he concluded.