Sabbir, Rana not picked in BCL draft

The players’ draft of the upcoming season of the Bangladesh Cricket League (BCL) took place yesterday with the top 80 cricketers of the country found themselves a team at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur.

Surprisingly, prominent names like Sabbir Rahman, Abu Hider and the prolific performer of the recently concluded Bangladesh Premier League, pacer Mehedi Hasan Rana, were not picked by any team in the draft.

This season, the only franchise-based first-class tournament of the country will involve only two corporate houses, Walton for Central Zone and Islami Bank for East Zone, while the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) will manage the two other teams North and South Zone.

The BCB tournament committee has come decided to cut the red-ball tournament short this time, running it in a single league format to create a window for the upcoming 2019-2020 Dhaka Premier League.

With the four-team tournament set to begin from Friday, cricketers who failed in the first round of fitness tests reappeared for the exam at the BCB indoor facilities yesterday. More than 100 cricketers participated in the fitness test and passed the benchmark, level 11 in beep test, set by national selectors.

However, the likes of experienced cricketers Abdur Razzak and Tushar Imran were unable to pass the beep test and were given special consideration and, much like in the previous season of the National Cricket League, will take part in the tournament.

Meanwhile, frontline national cricketers will be available for the first and the third rounds of the tournament. Mushfiqur Rahim, who opted out from the Pakistan tour, will be fully available for BCB North Zone. All-rounder Mahmudullah will feature for BCB South Zone while national opener Tamim Iqbal will be seen in action for Islami Bank East Zone.