Bangladesh players have 11 demands that they have released ahead of India tour. © Getty

Cricketers Welfare Association of Bangladesh president Naimur Rahman has said that he is ready to quit from his position. On Monday (October 21), the Bangladesh cricketers went on strike and raised an 11-point demand.

Former national cricketer Naeem Islam read out the first demand in front of the media where he stated that they want the resignation of the current president and secretary of CWAB with immediate effect. The Bangladesh players stressed that the conflict of interest remains one of the major reason for its inactivity as Rahman, vice president Khaled Mahmud are in the BCB's board of directors while secretary Debabrata Paul is a match referee.

CWAB, which also represents Bangladesh in player's global body FICA, hasn't held an election despite the tenure of the current committee ending seven months ago. Rahman, who was Bangladesh's first Test captain, has been heading the committee since its inception.

"I have to spend money from my pocket in CWAB and I am with CWAB for quite some time. It is natural that someone new will come and I am willing to quit but not under any pressure," Rahman told Cricbuzz. "CWAB will have an election and if there is someone elected, he will be the president. But the organisation has a constitution and we must follow it.

"They want new leadership and it is ok. Let them talk with us and we will give the date of the election. I am busy with a lot of other things so even I cannot give all my time here so we want some other players should also get involved. We had already offered them seven months back and even I personally asked them to take over the responsibility. At that time they did not want to take responsibility and said that we should run it."

The players raised several points and demanded equal pay for the local players in comparison to the overseas players. They also demanded that the pay for first-class cricket be increased. "I will justify what I have done and we have done many things before their demand. I will clear it out first. And they should also prove what we haven't done and which of their demand was unnoticed," said Rahman.

"The main thing is that CWAB always informed the board about their demands. If they demanded something, we always informed it about the board. They cannot mention any demand that we have not put forward to the board. They never brought anything to us on their own. The demands that they made today to me it looks most of them are logical. But most of them have already been proposed to the board. Some are implemented and something on the process.

"Yes, of course, they demanded the increase in pay. We proposed that it should be increased by 25 per cent and the board increased it by 10 per cent. I proposed in the last co-coordinator meeting that, if there is an airport, players should travel by air there. If necessary, the board can take any airline as a sponsor.

"CWAB is already bargaining for them and they have never said anything formally to us. Take Mosharraf Rubel incident. We had requested the board to come forward and the board had given five lakh initially and 10 lakhs later. Naeem Islam, who's asking for the resignation of the CWAB president and secretary, his salary was increased with the other 21 players."

Rahman stressed the players are being misguided. "Someone is there. Because they have chosen such a time. The timing is not right. Plus the demands they have presented, they should have submitted it to the board first, then should have decided whether they would boycott or go on strike. They did not demand to the board or CWAB first," he said.

"Maybe they are misguided, inexperienced. They have made a mistake. I am taking it like that. Or maybe someone misguiding them behind the camera."