A day after the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) slapped 10-year ban each on 13 rebel cricketers, speculation was ripe that the shocked players would meet the board high-ups.
But the banned cricketers were nowhere to be seen at the board headquarters in the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday following a hard line stance by the country's cricket authority.
According to a board official, the cricketers who joined the banned Indian Cricket League (ICL) must withdraw the resignation letters they submitted on Sunday before they can sit with the board officials.
In addition, the rebel cricketers must also be released from their ICL contracts, something that they signed in New Delhi on Tuesday.
The unaffiliated cricket organisers launched the 'Dhaka Warriors' team with Bashar, Alok Kapali, Shahriar Nafees and Dhiman Ghosh brandishing swords in a ceremony held in the Indian capital.
Upon their return to Dhaka on Wednesday, Bashar was shocked by the 10-year ban that the board had imposed on them, and confirmed that they would sit with the board officials to decide their 'next course of action and explain everything'.
But BCB's stance on the entire matter remained strict and they received a further boost when the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) backed their move to ban the players.
"Our position is that at the moment ICL is still unofficial cricket," an ICC spokesman told AFP from the governing body's headquarters in Dubai.
The BCCI said it will play help out Bangladesh cricket by including a team in the 2010 edition of the Champions Twenty20 League and include more Bangladeshi cricketers in the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL).
BCCI vice-president Lalit Modi, who also heads both these tournaments, told Cricinfo: "We will definitely play an active role in helping them out. We are looking at adding a few of their (Bangladesh) players for the next IPL auction and we are also looking at a team from Bangladesh participating in the Champions League from 2010 onwards."
The next IPL auction is tentatively scheduled for January 29, about two months before the second season begins on April 10.
Left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak is the only Bangladesh player currently in the IPL and Bangalore Royal Challengers signed him up for US$50,000.
Although national boards don't get a share of IPL's revenues, they will receive a significant sum for participating in the Champions League, along with a separate participation fee for the domestic Twenty20 teams that are invited. The Champions League is hoping to expand from eight teams this year to 12 in 2009.
The ICC, meanwhile, said that any discussion on Bangladesh's Test future will have to be within the committee it had formed in July on unofficial cricket. "Any decision on this will be taken at the ICC board meeting and it will be the working party that will decide on such an issue," an ICC spokesperson told CricInfo.
The ICC's committee is believed to have discussed the issue over the last few months although Modi, who is a member, declined to comment on the nature of those talks.
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