'Ash should've been top of the charts'

Bangladesh Cricket Board director and Abahani coach Khaled Mahmud was not overly impressed with disgraced former national captain Mohammad Ashraful's performance in the Dhaka Premier League this season. The Kalabagan Krira Chakra skipper, who returned to domestic cricket in late 2016 after serving out a ban for match-fixing in the Bangladesh Premier League, hit three centuries this season but could not save Kalabagan from the relegation playoffs.

"He is doubtless a very big player and Bangladesh's first superstar," Mahmud said during Abahani's practice session at the Academy ground in Mirpur yesterday. "But even though he scored three centuries, he was not consistent.

"He should have been the top run-scorer in the league after three centuries, but that did not happen. Instead he is in 11th or 12th [11th] position. But even then, it is important that he is scoring runs after returning to the game after a long time."

Mahmud does have a point. 333 of Ashraful's 460 runs in the first phase came from his three century-plus innings. While his average after 11 games is a more than respectable 46, if his centuries are taken out of the equation his average comes down to 15.83 in the other eight games.