Support staff looking for BCB’s support

The BCB has already handed over cheques to respective clubs to support the cricketers in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. This was done as the BCB apprehends that the DPL, which was postponed after the first round, may not resume anytime soon.

However, there are coaches, trainers and physios who work their socks off to ensure the game keeps rolling and these people earn their bread through the Dhaka league.

Although the cricketers have got the financial support from the BCB, the coaches and the support staff remain overlooked in these testing times, with their livelihoods heavily dependent on such remuneration.

Among the twelve DPL clubs, each have at least four to five support staff which includes head coach, assistant coach, physio and trainer.

There are a few coaches who are among paid employees of the BCB such as Khaled Mahmud and Foisal Hossain Dickens, both working for Abahani. There are others like Talha Jubair, Rajin Saleh, Sohel Islam, Alamgir Kabir who are among the paid employees of the BCB.

But coaches of half of those twelve clubs are not enlisted as BCB's employees and they mostly rely on earnings from the DPL, which is currently suspended indefinitely.

Mamunur Rashid Sumon, an assistant coach of Legends of Rupganj team, is one those coaches who is not a BCB employee and one whose livelihood depends on earnings from the DPL.

Since it is still not certain when the league will resume again, Sumon is passing anxious time at home and looking forward for support from the BCB.

"Like the non-contracted cricketers got one-time monetary support from the BCB, we, the support staff, also expect something like that. As I have taken coaching as a profession, I have no other income source except for cricket and DPL is one of the biggest sources of income for me. Although I am also a coach of a cricket academy, but that too has stopped due to the coronavirus. BCB is our guardian and I expect the board will consider our situation too. Things are getting really difficult everyday," Sumon told The Daily Star yesterday.

As the future seems uncertain for many due to the growing spread of the virus, the affluent cricket board should extend its support, not just towards the cricketers but also towards people who work behind the scene.