Tamim Iqbal Announces Major Pay Rise for Domestic Cricketers
Tamim Iqbal didn’t wait for the storm to grow.
With unease spreading among Bangladesh’s cricketers after the postponement of the Bangladesh Premier League, the BCB president walked into an impromptu press conference at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on Thursday and dropped a financial bombshell: match fees across domestic cricket, for both men and women, are going up. Dramatically.
This was not a tweak. It was a reset.
Big money for the backbone of Bangladesh cricket
Under the new structure, men’s first-class cricketers will now earn Tk 1.5 lakh per match, more than double the previous Tk 70,000. When Tamim first took charge of the BCB ad-hoc committee, he had already raised that figure to Tk 1 lakh. Now he has gone further, turning what used to be a modest reward into a serious professional fee.
List A cricket has been given the same treatment. Players will receive Tk 1 lakh per game, up from Tk 50,000. Domestic T20s, outside the BPL, now carry a match fee of Tk 80,000 instead of Tk 40,000.
The message is clear: if the BPL is off the calendar, domestic cricket will carry the financial load.
Tamim framed it in simple terms. The BPL, he pointed out, typically showcases 50 to 70 local players. Domestic cricket, across first-class, List A and T20 formats, involves closer to 150 to 200 cricketers. That wider base, not just the star tier, needed protection in a year without the country’s flagship franchise tournament.
He also acknowledged the reality many players have whispered about: incomes in the Dhaka League have dipped compared to two or three years ago. With the BPL shelved for the season, the risk of a financial squeeze on professionals outside the national team had become very real.
So the board moved.
Women’s cricket gets a lift too
The overhaul is not limited to the men’s game. Women’s domestic cricketers will also see their earnings jump.
The match fee for a women’s four-day game doubles from Tk 20,000 to Tk 40,000. One-day matches rise from Tk 15,000 to Tk 30,000. T20s go from Tk 10,000 to Tk 20,000.
It’s a significant shift for a group that has often operated on the margins of Bangladesh’s cricket economy. The numbers are still smaller than the men’s, but the percentage increase is identical in spirit: a clear attempt to make domestic cricket a more sustainable career, not just a seasonal opportunity.
From insecurity to stability
The timing of the announcement is no coincidence. Cricbuzz had already reported growing insecurity among players after the BCB decided to postpone the next BPL edition. Some cricketers even voiced frustration with the Cricketers Welfare Association, unhappy with how their concerns were being handled in discussions with the board.
Tamim’s response was to close ranks.
“So, one or two proposals had come from the players’ side,” he said after the working committee meeting in Mirpur. Then he drew a line under any notion of confrontation. He insisted there were not “two sides” at all – only one: cricketers, the board, directors, president, all aligned.
The solution he pushed for was not a stopgap. He stressed that he did not want a one-year fix tied to a single cancelled BPL season. He wanted a structure that would benefit players “year after year after year.”
By his own calculation, a domestic cricketer who plays a full season, combining match fees with salary, could now earn in the region of Tk 35 to 40 lakh annually. Break that down, and it’s more than Tk 3 lakh a month.
“Everything has increased by 100% or more,” Tamim explained. In his view, that level of income should allow players to support their families without constant financial anxiety, purely through BCB-run tournaments.
A new deal – and a new demand
There is, however, a catch. With more money comes a harder edge on standards.
Tamim made it plain that the board will not entertain pleas from players who fail the mandatory pre-season fitness test. The days of quiet leniency, of exceptions made behind closed doors, are over if he has his way.
“We will fully fulfil the demands that came from the players’ side,” he said, before turning the spotlight back on them. The board, he insisted, now expects its own demands to be met. Professionalism in first-class cricket, a topic that has often surfaced in internal discussions, will be monitored “very strongly.”
Fail the fitness test, and there will be “no requests or anything like that listened to.”
The subtext is sharp. If the BCB is putting serious money on the table, players must treat domestic cricket with the seriousness of a full-time profession, not a stepping stone or a fallback.
Shifting burdens, reshaping priorities
Behind the pay rise sits another strategic calculation. Cricbuzz understands that the BCB no longer wants to shoulder the entire financial burden of tournaments such as the National Cricket League (NCL) T20 and the Bangladesh Cricket League (BCL) four-day and one-day competitions.
The board is willing to invest heavily in players, but it is also looking to rebalance how domestic tournaments are funded and sustained.
For now, though, the immediate headline belongs to the cricketers. In a year without the BPL, when anxiety could easily have turned into open conflict, Tamim has chosen to send a different signal: domestic cricket matters, and the professionals who carry it will be paid like it.
The money is on the table. The question now is whether the players can match it with the level of fitness, discipline and commitment the BCB has just demanded in return.
