To be disclosed tomorrow after review
The country will have to wait till the last day of deadline to know the Tigers’ World Cup squad after the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) decided to announce the 15-member team on January 19.
After a marathon meeting of the technical and evaluation committee that lasted more than three hours, it was informed that due to ‘several scopes of discussion’, the team could not be put forward for BCB president’s approval. The technical committee, led by Enayet Hossain Siraj, is the first checking point for the selectors, and the Rafiqul Alam-led panel failed to get past that hurdle with what mooted to be their choice of 15.
The chief reason behind the delay, according to Siraj, is consideration of medical grounds. In other words, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza’s standing in the team, after his fitness report confirmed that he wouldn’t be fit before selection, kept the meeting a hotly-contested one.
Sources have confirmed that Mashrafe wasn’t in the selection committee’s consideration, a reason enough for the some of the technical committee members to oppose. Another area, the team’s middle-order, also kept the meeting busy with the position of Rokibul much-talked about.
The debate put the autonomy of the selection committee in serious threat for a second time but Siraj said that since the board takes all the blame, the technical committee is legitimate to discuss anything.
The common practice is for the selectors to select the team and the board president to approve it. It used to be an academic event but the evaluation committee, a latest creation of the board, has put a stop to what used to be a very simple equation. According to a source, Rafiqul Alam and his two colleagues had to face a lot of questions and give a lot of explanations on the choices they made.
“The selectors do pick the team but ultimately, BCB are to blame if something goes wrong. So there is nothing wrong if the technical committee evaluates the selection and give suggestions to the board and selection committee for their consideration. The technical committee was formed so that there remains a scope for discussion,” defended Siraj after the meeting ended.
“Since we have a few days in hand, we would like to make full use of it. And there are some medical issues which deserves a second look so we will wait till the last day. The selectors will sit with the team and discuss if they have to fine-tune it,” he added, pretty much confirming that the selectors had in fact given their fifteen.
Siraj also claimed that since the team will be under the cricket board up to February 8, there will be reason to wait. It was a confusing point since the World Cup squad has to be submitted by January 19 and after that, the BCB has to take the ICC’s permission to change any member of the squad.
“Mashrafe’s chances are very slim,” revealed Siraj according to Michael Henry’s fitness report. And it was also known that it would be a team of performers and it would be made up of players who were part of the squad for the last two years.
