Bangladesh: Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Tamim Iqbal's latest hike in domestic match fees has drawn wide praise, but questions remain over whether all cricketers will get enough playing opportunities to benefit from it.
According to United News of Bangladesh, Tamim announced the increase on Thursday, marking the second such hike in five months following an earlier rise in April. The latest revision lifts first-class match fees by 114.29 percent, while List A and T20 fees have doubled compared to last season. In addition, women's match fees have also doubled across all three formats.
Tamim detailed that a player completing the domestic season could now earn between Tk 35-40 lakh a year, translating to more than Tk 3 lakh monthly on average. However, data from the BCB reveals that only 21 players across eight teams participated in all seven matches of last season's National Cricket League (NCL) four-day competition, and no player from Rangpur Division featured in all 10 of the team's T20 matches.
The new fee structure allows a player participating in all seven NCL four-day matches to earn Tk 10.5 lakh, with an additional Tk 20.5 lakh possible from a proposed new six-team, three-format domestic structure. Despite the lucrative potential, a cricketer from Chattogram Division expressed concerns that the benefit "is not going to be there for all the players," highlighting that national and 'A' team players are in a better position to gain financially as they also participate in the BPL and DPL.
In response to these concerns, the BCB is proposing an NCL Second XI to broaden opportunities for players outside the main system, although its match fee has not been finalized yet.