Staff Correspondent
Mohammad Ashraful has been retained as the captain of the national cricket team until the West Indies tour in June-July, the Bangladesh Cricket Board said on Saturday.
The BCB was under pressure to replace Ashraful after the 24-year-old right-handed batsman had managed to score only 12 runs in three one-day internationals against Zimbabwe at home last month.
‘We have decided to give him a few more time. He will remain under observation during the period,’ media committee chairman Jalal Yunus told reporters after an executive committee meeting of the BCB. He said the meeting had also discussed the names of pacer Mashrafee bin Murtaza and wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim as a potential replacement for Ashraful.
‘Mashrafee (Murtaza) and Mushfiq (Rahim) are now captaining two club sides in the domestic league. We will also keep observing them on. If Ashraful fails to impress during the time the captaincy will go to either of them,’ he said.
Bangladesh will play a home series against Pakistan in March featuring two Twenty20 Internationals and five ODIs and will also play in the Twenty20 World Cup in England in July before travelling to the West Indies.
Ashraful was made captain in July 2006 replacing Habibul Bashar and has so far led Bangladesh in 13 Test matches and 38 ODIs. His batting average has slumped from 24.35 to 22.58 in Tests and the ODI average has improved from 21.94 to 25.60 since he assumed the captaincy.
The BCB official said they did not discuss much about all-rounder Sakib al Hasan taking over as the next captain considering his current form, which they believe, might be affected by the burden of captaincy.
Coach Jamie Siddons made a presentation before the officials at the meeting after one year in the job and had to reply to certain queries over the form of some key players like Ashraful and Tamim Iqbal.
‘Jamie claimed to have transformed Sakib into a better batsman by improving his back-lift. He also promised to help Ashraful and Tamim regain their touch,’ said Jalal Yunus. Siddons took over as the coach of Bangladesh in November 2007 and has so far led them to eight one-day wins.
Bangladesh played three close Test matches against South Africa, New Zealand and Sri Lanka, but failed to win any of them. His best success as coach was a draw against New Zealand in a Test match that saw the first three days being rained off.
Yunus, however, evaded questions on whether they were satisfied with the performance of Siddons.
The meeting also decided to re-impose the bowling ban on left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak following objections from some clubs. The BCB also barred him from playing for Bangladesh Biman, who already have three national pool players in Shahadat Hossain, Mahbubul Alam and Sakib al Hasan.
‘We have asked Biman to release him as they have already three pool players. It was a mistake on our part for not including Razzak in the pool,’ he said.
‘We permitted him to bowl in the Twenty20 tournament as it was necessary to see how much his bowling action has improved. Now we have sent the video footage to Australia. Until he is cleared from there, Razzak should be banned from bowling. However, if his team want, they can play him as a batsman,’ added Yunus.
The BCB official said they have also finalised the formation of the BCB Welfare Trust and decided to donate Tk 36 lakh to the fund primarily. Of the amount Tk 26 lakh will come from a sundry fund and another Tk 10 lakh has been collected by selling the bats autographed by the cricketers.
The BCB also decided to cut 5 per cent of players’ money from the national team sponsorship and donate it to the fund. Usually the players get 15 per cent of the sponsorship money, but from now on it will be 10 per cent. The beneficiaries of the fund, however, will not be the players alone.
The BCB decided that the players, the organisers, the umpires, the BCB staff and all other stakeholders in the Bangladesh cricket will be beneficiaries of the fund.
The meeting also revealed that Tk 7 lakh has been collected for the family of late national cricketer Manzarul Islam from a benefit match (Bangladesh v Zimbabwe) in the recently-concluded tri-nation one-day tournament. Overall, the BCB has earned Tk 42 lakh from the gate money of the tri-nation series, informed Jalal Yunus.
Courtesy: newagebd.com
