End of CCDM?

[Zunaid]

Searched but did not find a thread on this topic:

From Daily Star

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) looks set to cut its ties with club cricket.

Amid mounting speculation the Ali Asghar-led BCB advisory committee is busy working on a new formula, which will ultimately break club control in the domestic scene.

The Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metropolis (CCDM) has been running the country's most exciting domestic competition -- the Premier Cricket League, billed cricket's breeding ground.

After the bizarre circumstances that led to the creation of the successful Corporate Cricket League (CCL), the BCB felt that the situation could have been avoided had the CCDM been more active.

So it has forced the cricket chiefs to think otherwise.

The BCB advisory committee on Thursday gave Asghar full authority to take a decision about the matter and 'reorganise' the CCDM and the tournament committee.

It was learnt that the tournament committee is going to be brought under the supervision of development committee.

"It is not true that the CCDM and the tournament committee have been abolished but the matter was discussed in the meeting. We requested the president to take a decision about the committees," said BCB advisor and media committee chairman Reazuddin Al Mamun over telephone yesterday.

Mamun admitted that they have new thoughts about club cricket without elaborating.

Whatever the BCB high-ups are cooking, they must ensure that the Dhaka League is not damaged because it is the only source of income for countless cricketers.

The Corporate Cricket League was introduced to compensate the cricketers after the clubs were reluctant to play in this season's league because it coincided with the monsoons and also they were against the Board's holding of two leagues in the same year.

A high official of the BCB said that the Board now wants to wash its hands of the Premier League and let the clubs run the show.

Carried away by the overwhelming success of the newly-introduced competition for corporate houses, which will start in October again, everybody seems to have forgotten about the Premier League. How can a competition that was intended to be treated as a short-term solution supercede a traditional league that has over the years proven to be the cradle of Bangladesh cricket?

Players learn the essentials and how to cope with pressure in this league. Even match-winners are made.

"You should be aware whatever we have achieved so far is because of club cricket. I don't mind the existence of the Corporate Cricket League but it would be silly to think it is a replacement for club cricket," said a popular club official on condition of anonymity.

"Just look at the present national team where cricketers like Mohammad Rafique, Habibul Bashar and Khaled Mashud are performing. They are the products of league cricket," he said.

[Piranha]

Why are players, officials and journalists so in love with club cricket? Sure it gave us many good things, but we really need to move on. We need proper first class infrastructure with longer version matches played regularly.

As long as we keep making half-a$$ed reforms and stop gap meaures, we'll never have a proper domestic cricket infrastructure.