Where is Nimbus money?
There were many issues on the agenda during the press conference after yesterday's annual general meeting of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) but the subject that brought it to life was one word: Nimbus.
The groundbreaking six-year deal, penned in July 2008 (after the Head of Agreement of the contract was signed in November 2006), was worth 56.88 million dollars but has since become a constant thorn on the board's side.
Board president AHM Mustafa Kamal said Nimbus owes a lot of money to BCB, in excess of 22 million dollars, and they are trying to figure out a way to bring the money.
"We are supposed to get a lot of money from Nimbus, like 20 to 22 million dollars. The deal, signed during the caretaker government, was not done properly," said Kamal.
"We are trying to arrange two events with India in near future but it has to be within the time frame of our contract with Nimbus.
"I hope that we can make something out of it because it can offset some of the 14 to 17 million dollars they owe us and through the tours, we can also earn 4 million dollars," he said, adding that the tours could be confirmed within a month.
The board chief also said that Nimbus, due to several reasons, is unable to keep their end of the bargain. "According to them, there were material changes like matches being held in March instead of November, or from Sunday to Friday or day matches being played day-night. They faced obstacles due to these and some other issues," informed Kamal.
"It is surprising that such a deal was signed. They [Nimbus] did not implement the bank guarantee. It is almost like a blank paper that we have had to work on," he added.
A vital component of the big-money contract -- bank guarantee -- has never been implemented although it was incorporated in the Long Form Agreement (LFA) during Sina Ibn Jamali's reign as board chief, some 20 months after the Head of Agreement was signed without a clause for the guarantee.
"We couldn't go out of the Head of Agreement due to its limitations. For the board's interest, we had to make sure we get the best out of the deal and made sure we incorporated the bank guarantee in the LFA," said BCB vice-president Ahmed Sajjadul Alam, who was part of the board when the LFA was penned.
"One has to bear in mind that without the LFA, Nimbus was not paying us any money. I would stress that the LFA wasn't perfect simply because there were compulsions in the Head of Agreement," he added.
The deal was to have a confirmed schedule early in a year so that the minimum guaranteed money that they would pay could be determined through the bank guarantee, but that has never been put into practice.
Earlier this year, the board president along with vice-president Mahbubul Anam went to Mumbai to hammer out some kind of understanding with Nimbus so that they pay BCB 10 million dollars immediately and the remaining 13 million later.