Tamim Iqbal didn’t wait for the dust to settle.
With players on edge after the postponement of the Bangladesh Premier League, the Bangladesh Cricket Board president walked into an impromptu press conference at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on Thursday and dropped a financial jolt that will reshape domestic cricket’s pay scale.
Match fees across formats, for both men and women, have been doubled or more. The message was blunt: if the BPL money isn’t coming this year, the board will make sure domestic cricket does the heavy lifting.
A Landmark Pay Rise
Under the new structure, men’s first-class cricketers will earn Tk 1.5 lakh per match, up from Tk 70,000. When Tamim first stepped in as head of the BCB ad-hoc committee, he had already pushed that figure to Tk 1 lakh. Now he has gone even further.
- List A match fees have been doubled from Tk 50,000 to Tk 1 lakh.
- Domestic T20 cricketers will see their fees rise from Tk 40,000 to Tk 80,000 per game.
The women’s game has not been left behind. Fees for a four-day match have climbed from Tk 20,000 to Tk 40,000. One-dayers move from Tk 15,000 to Tk 30,000, and T20s from Tk 10,000 to Tk 20,000.
“Everything has increased by 100% or more,” Tamim said, laying out the scale of the move after the BCB working committee meeting in Mirpur.
Beyond BPL Money
The tension had been building. With the BPL — the country’s only franchise-based T20 tournament — postponed, a section of players felt exposed. Some were openly unhappy with how the Cricketers Welfare Association leadership was handling negotiations with the board.
Tamim chose to address the bigger picture.
“So, what we have all decided together is that, overall, in the BPL, you will see 50, 60, 65, 70 local cricketers play. But if you think about Bangladesh cricket, in first-class, List A, T20, there are plus or minus 150 to 200 cricketers involved,” he said.
That’s the core of his argument. The BPL rewards a small pool. Domestic cricket carries the weight of the game.
“Now, their well-being, in the Dhaka League, maybe financially, what it was two or three years ago, perhaps that has dropped. Plus, because the BPL will not take place this year, there can be a financial impact,” he admitted.
The pressure from players sparked the conversation. Tamim was clear he didn’t want a quick fix.
“I never wanted a one-year solution for the players. I wanted there to be a solution, my board wanted there to be a solution that would benefit them year after year after year,” he said.
A Living from Domestic Cricket Alone
Tamim believes the new structure can turn domestic cricket into a stable livelihood, not just a stepping stone.
He calculated that if a domestic cricketer plays a full season, including salary, earnings could reach Tk 35 lakh to Tk 40 lakh a year.
“If you divide that by 12, a player will have an income of more than Tk 3 lakh per month,” he explained. “To run their family, I don’t think they will need to worry anymore. It is a significant step.”
The board president framed it as a unified decision.
“So, one or two proposals had come from the players’ side. Eventually, we both side — I don’t consider it two sides at all. There is only one side, that we are all one. Cricketers, the cricket board, directors, president — all are one,” he said.
Money for Standards, Not Comfort
The pay rise, though, comes with a sharp edge.
Tamim made it plain that the BCB expects a different level of professionalism in return, especially in first-class cricket.
“We will fully fulfil the demands that came from the players’ side, but they also have to fulfil the demands from our side. There will be no sacrifice when it comes to professionalism in first-class cricket, which is something that is discussed a lot sometimes among us,” he said.
Fitness sits at the heart of that demand.
“When someone fails to pass the fitness test, there will be no requests or anything like that listened to. When the board is providing everything and giving all financial support, the professionalism from the players’ side will now also be monitored very strongly,” Tamim warned.
The message is clear: the board will pay, but it will also police.
Shifting the Financial Burden
Behind the bold numbers lies another reality. Cricbuzz understands the BCB no longer wants to shoulder the entire financial load for tournaments like the National Cricket League (NCL) T20 and the Bangladesh Cricket League (BCL) four-day and one-day competitions.
That makes this move even more striking. At a time when the board is reassessing where its money goes, it has chosen to significantly lift what domestic players can earn per match.
The BPL postponement had threatened to turn into a flashpoint between players and board. Instead, Tamim has tried to turn it into a reset — one that could redefine what it means to be a professional cricketer in Bangladesh, even without the glare of a franchise league.
