Naimur retains post

The atmosphere inside the home of cricket in Mirpur turned festive after the primary results of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) elections were announced yesterday, with Bangladesh's first-ever Test captain Naimur Rahman being re-elected as a BCB director from Dhaka Division in the afternoon.

Naimur and Syed Ashfakul were elected for the two available posts from Dhaka Division.

Although Ashfakul, who is not a known figure in the cricket fraternity, won all the 18 votes, Naimur got 13.

"I had to contest the election last time like this time. It feels good to be elected anywhere as it gives you satisfaction after getting the mandate from the voters. I was pretty confident and I kept my faith in the councillors from my division," said Naimur while flanked by a huge number of followers from Manikganj.

"If I did not trust them, I would have asked for a written commitment which I didn't. I have shown my respect to them," he added, perhaps pointing at a popular practice adopted by candidates during elections of sports federations in the country.

While Naimur, one of the two candidates of the Nazmul Hassan panel contesting for three posts, passed with flying colours, MA Awal Bulu suffered a crushing defeat to Alamgir Khan, who received six out of seven votes for the lone post from Barisal Division.

The newly elected directors will now be delegated their responsibilities and duties at the executive committee meeting today where the directors will also elect a board president alongside two vice-presidents.

"We will have our last executive committee meeting today where we will hand over the authority to the new executive committee. And it will be up to the new executive committee to elect a new president," said incumbent BCB president Hassan after the elections at the BCB headquarters yesterday.

"All the directors have asked me to become the president again and so far it's going to be like that," Hassan informed.