BCB Raises Domestic Match Fees by 100% Following CWAB Demand

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has decided not to hold the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) this season, raising concerns among domestic cricketers as the tournament is one of their major sources of income.

In response, the Cricketers’ Welfare Association of Bangladesh (CWAB) held several rounds of discussions with the BCB to explore ways of ensuring players can maintain a decent income through other domestic competitions.

At a meeting with CWAB on Tuesday, BCB president Tamim Iqbal pledged to increase match fees in domestic cricket. The issue was revisited at Thursday’s BCB working committee meeting, where the board approved significant increases across all three formats.

Speaking after the meeting, Tamim confirmed that match fees for BCB-organised domestic tournaments had been doubled.

The last major increase in domestic match fees came in 2019 following the players’ movement led by Shakib Al Hasan. During the interim government’s tenure, National Cricket League (NCL) match fees were raised from Tk50,000–60,000 to Tk80,000. After taking charge as BCB president, Tamim had also expressed his intention to raise first-class match fees to Tk1 lakh.

Thursday’s decision went beyond that proposal, with match fees for the NCL and other first-class competitions now increased to Tk1.5 lakh.

For one-day matches in BCB tournaments, including the NCL and Bangladesh Cricket League (BCL), the fee has been doubled from Tk50,000 to Tk1 lakh. T20 match fees have also doubled, rising from Tk40,000 to Tk80,000.

The increase has come as welcome news for domestic cricketers ahead of a busy season featuring competitions across all three formats.

“National team players will also benefit financially from playing domestic cricket,” Tamim said.

“However, they remain busy throughout the year and also need rest. If there are no workload concerns, I am sure they will play.”

Tamim stressed that the decision was intended to provide players with long-term financial security rather than simply compensate for the absence of the BPL this season.

“If we only wanted to keep the players happy, we could have increased the match fees for just one year,” Tamim said.

“We could have brought the fees back to the old rate if the BPL returned next season. But our aim was to do something that would help players for a long period.”

He added that a cricketer who regularly participates in domestic competitions could earn a substantial income even without being selected for the national team.

According to Tamim, such a player could earn between Tk30 lakh and Tk40 lakh in a season.