In Bangladesh women’s cricket, motherhood can mean losing both an income and the chance to continue a career due to the lack of a formal maternity policy as well as adequate institutional support. The experience of former pacer Suraiya Azmin, as reported by this daily, highlights this issue. When she emailed the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) on May 9 to request paid maternity leave, she received no response. After giving birth in August, she found herself dropped from the national contract list, while her leave request and unpaid salary remained unresolved. The question is: should motherhood be a penalty for women cricketers who have dedicated their lives to represent our country?
Suraiya is not the only one to face this reality. Former national team batter Sanjida Islam Moyna, who played 16 ODIs and 54 T20Is between 2012 and 2020, went through a similar situation. While she continued playing domestic cricket after her marriage in 2020, she had to eventually step away after giving birth in 2025 to raise her child. Former cricketer and international umpire Sathira Jakir Jessy also struggled to balance motherhood and cricket. According to Sanjida, officials and selectors often assume that married players or those who have children will not continue playing for long, so they do not want to invest further in them. Such attitudes undermine women’s careers and risk wasting the talent and experience the country has already invested in developing.
While our women players are expected to choose between family life and professional ambitions, the situation in many other countries is different. Australia and New Zealand provide paid maternity leave to contracted players, while Pakistan introduced a parental support policy in 2021. These measures demonstrate that supporting players through pregnancy and childbirth is compatible with sustaining their careers. The International Cricket Council (ICC) has recently introduced return-to-play guidelines for female cricketers after pregnancy, covering medical assessments, recovery, gradual training, and monitoring. The guidelines provide a framework for member boards but do not guarantee paid leave, making a clear national policy all the more necessary.
We welcome BCB’s assurance that it will follow the ICC guidelines. But promises to address these matters on a case-by-case basis are not enough. BCB should urgently introduce a comprehensive maternity policy, establishing the right to paid maternity leave clearly, protecting contracts and salaries during pregnancy and recovery, and providing appropriate medical care and fitness assessments to support their return to competition. It should also set out transparent procedures for contract renewal and selection so that marriage or motherhood does not become an unofficial ground for excluding players. These protections should also extend to other cricketing individuals, including coaches and match officials, so that their careers are not similarly disrupted by inadequate maternity support. In Suraiya’s case, the board must settle her outstanding dues promptly and clarify her contractual position.