Bangladesh's national cricketers and support staff have been given a 30 per cent pay hike following a meeting of the cricket board on Wednesday. The decision - one of several taken at the board meeting at the Sher-e-Bangla stadium in Mirpur - comes six months after several top national players joined the unrecognised Indian Cricket League and were barred from official cricket.
"It was a long time coming. It's been long overdue," Jalal Yunus, the spokesman for the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), told AFP. "At the moment a top-grade player earns around $1000 a month so that will be increased by 30 percent."

The board also extended the contract of Bangladesh's bowling coach Champaka Ramanayeke until the end of the tour of the West Indies in 2009, while fielding coach Mohammad Salah Uddin, computer analyst Nasir Ahmed and operations manager Shafique-ul Haque were given one-year extensions. However, the pay hike does not apply to the team's overseas management, including Bangladesh coach Jamie Siddons, Yunus said.

The Bangladesh Under-19 tour of England, scheduled for April 2009, was also approved at the meeting and the board will also make arrangements for the visits by Sri Lanka and South Africa Academy Teams.

A four-member committee, which will be convened by director Dewan Shafiul Arefin, was formed in order to look into organizational aspects of the 2011 World Cup.