The Bangladesh Cricket Board has allowed the members of the national side to play for their respective divisional sides in the second phase of the National Cricket League beginning today in two different venues in Dhaka.
Dhaka will face Khulna in the first match of the second phase at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium while defending champions Barisal will take on favourites Rajshahi at the Dhanmondi Cricket Stadium in the other match.
The BCB had earlier barred the Tigers from the NCL games after the third round of the first phase and had instead asked them to join the preliminary camp for the upcoming one-day series against Zimbabwe.
Most of the national players performed well in the three matches they played, which encouraged coach Jamie Siddons to send them for NCL duty again, said an official on Sunday.
‘I think it’s a good decision both for the players and the tournament,’ Gazi Ashraf Hossain, chairman of the BCB tournament committee, said.
‘It was agreed earlier that they will be playing from the second match of the second phase. But Siddons now feels it would be better for them if they play from the beginning. So, we decided to release the players whose teams have qualified for the second phase.’
However, pacemen Mashrafee bin Murtaza, Shafiul Islam, and Rubel Hossain, batsman Roqibul Hassan, all-rounder Mahmudullah and spinner Abdur Razzak will not be available for today’s game on the advice of the national team physiotherapist.
