All eyes were on the Sher-e-Bangla National stadium in Mirpur yesterday, where the executive meeting of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), after which board president Nazmul Hassan addressed the media. National players' central contracts were among the major issues in the meeting, with six cricketers cut from the contracts after consideration of their performance. 10 cricketers were retained the central contracts list and three more players will be added as rookies to make it 13. There were a few other issues addressed by the BCB president.

NATIONAL PLAYERS' CENTRAL CONTRACTS

It was learned that only Liton Das has been confirmed so far among the three rookies.

The 10 players retained in the central contracts are: Tamim Iqbal, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah Riyad, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Taijul Islam, Mominul Haque, Mustafizur Rahman, Rubel Hossain and Mehedi Hasan Miraz.

The board is yet to categorise the players and the BCB president also informed that they are not increasing the players' salaries for the year 2018 as the board had increased the salary just six months ago.

The six cricketers to miss out on the contracts from the previous year are: Soumya Sarkar, Mosaddek Hossain, Kamrul Islam Rabbi, Imrul Kayes, Taskin Ahmed and Sabbir Rahman. Among these six, Sabbir's name was already known as he is currently serving a six-month domestic ban for assaulting a young fan during a National Cricket League game in November last year.

 “We have reduced in number because – the cricket operations and selectors have decided it. They think that their performances have not been up to a level that makes a compelling case for them to be included in the contract,” said BCB's media committee chairman Jalal Younus.

The BCB president also informed the finance committee will take the budget into consideration and make a recommendation on how much can be paid to those who are on the payroll in first-class cricket, and the salaries of other payroll personnel.

BANGLADESH TO PLAY T20I SERIES AGAINST AFGHANISTAN

The BCB boss also informed that Bangladesh want to play a three T20Is against Afghanistan in the upcoming series instead of ODIs, but the dates are yet to be finalised. The venue of the series is still Dehdarun, but Hassan informed that the BCB wanted to play the series in Mumbai or Bangalore.

“Basically we play very few T20s. We have a T20 World Cup coming up, and although there is some time in between, we do not have any T20Is scheduled. We have Tests and ODIs. So in that respect we thought that it is better to play T20Is,” said Hassan.

HASSAN TO BECOME THE NEXT ACC PRESIDENT

It is Bangladesh's turn to nominate the next president of the Asian Cricket Council (Asian Cricket Council) and Hassan informed that the board has recommended his name for the post.

“The next ACC president will be from Bangladesh, and we have to recommend a name from the board, and the board decided to put forward my name. So in the next ACC board meeting, my name will be put forward,” he said.

Hassan will take over the post from Thilanga Sumathipala, who is also the president of Sri Lanka Cricket.

FOUR FOREIGNERS PER

SIDE IN BPL 2018

“In the last BPL five foreign players could play per match, but we have decided that only four foreign players can play at a time in a match in the next edition,” said Hassan.

“There is some confusion surrounding the retention of local and foreign players every time, so it is better to clarify it ahead of time. We decided that any franchisee can retain four players, be they local or foreign. The maximum number of players to be retained is four, and they can be any combination of local or foreign players, but a maximum of four.”

He also said that the board has accepted the proposal of the BPL governing council to start the BPL by the first week of October and wants to finish the league by mid-November.

REGIONAL CRICKET ASSOCIATION

The Board has stressed on initiating immediate implementation of the Regional Cricket Association structure with the inclusion of the provision for Regional Cricket Academy.

“The other very important thing is that we were talking about regional cricket associations for a long time. That is done. In fact if we had gotten it in the board today, it would have been final today. Even so, we have allowed 15 days; the final proposal will arrive within two weeks and we will approve it. And I hope that all operations of the regional cricket associations can commence within one month,” said Hassan.

COACHES' TERMS TO BE REVISITED

All the support staff of the national team, including the physio, are currently on vacation which raised concerns especially in light of recent injuries to national players in the Tigers' off-season. Hassan said that pending a proposal from the cricket operations committee, the terms of some coaches will be revisited and changed from a days-based contract so that they will not all be absent at the same time, even during the off-season.