New BCB chief executive takes office

Manzur Ahmed, a former wicketkeeper-batsman, joined the Bangladesh Cricket Board as its new chief executive officer on Wednesday, ending the country’s cricket oversight body’s long wait for the top executive post. He had a distinguished club and zonal cricket career spanning two decades in the 1970s and ‘80s, was the CEO of Brunei Darussalam Cricket Association before joining the BCB.

On his first day in office, Manzur was greeted by Nizmuddin Chowdhury, the deputy general manager (administration) who worked as acting CEO since the post fell vacant after the departure of Mahmudur Rahman in February 2008. It was a happy reunion for qualified engineer Manzur with some of his old mates who went on to become top organisers while he was pursuing a career abroad having obtained his MBA from the Institute of Business Administration of Dhaka University.

Shortly after his arrival, Manzur, the third CEO of the BCB after Zimbabwean Macky Dudhia and Mahmudur Rahman, was introduced to national coach Jamie Siddons, his assistants and the national players. His first assignment as the CEO will be to attend an ICC chief executives meeting in Cape Town on September 13-14.

On assuming his new office Manzur said: ‘This is a very exciting time for me. I had always wanted to involve myself with cricket in Bangladesh and as a keen sports enthusiast and former player this is the ideal challenge for me. ‘I firmly believe that good governance is the key factor in enhancing the level of performance and my effort would be to achieve that with the BCB.’