‘We call off the strike and will return to playing’

DHAKA: Two days after announcing they were going on strike, the Bangladesh players have called it off.

This happened after they met the BCB top brass on Wednesday evening, and according to Shakib Al Hasan, there had been some progress made.

"Today's talks were good," Shakib said. "But we will be happy and satisfied when everything will be implemented. We call off the strike, and return to playing NCL and national camp from Friday."

On Monday, Shakib along with several domestic and international players stood in front of the Academy ground in Mirpur and announced that they were boycotting all cricket-related activity until the BCB met 11 of their demands which ranged from better pay to revamps of the Bangladesh Premier League and the Bangladesh players association (CWAB).

This put a cloud over the third round of the National Cricket League this week and even the tour of India later in November. But now that the board and the players have reached a compromise, that danger has passed, with one small change. The NCL matches will start on October 25 instead of 24.

"Apart from the first point (fresh elections in CWAB), which the BCB has nothing to do with, we will implement the rest of their demands" the BCB president Nazmul Hassan said, "Some will be fulfilled immediately, while others like infrastructure will be done in the long run."