News

BCB president asks selectors to consider BPL performers for NZ tour

BCB president Nazmul Hassan has asked the national selectors to consider including some of the top performers from this season's BPL in Bangladesh's preparatory squad for the New Zealand tour next month

Mohammad Isam
Mohammad Isam
18-Nov-2016
Mehedi Maruf (right) is currently the top-scorer in this season's BPL, with 203 runs in five matches at an average and strike rate of 50.75 and 156.15 respectively  •  Getty Images

Mehedi Maruf (right) is currently the top-scorer in this season's BPL, with 203 runs in five matches at an average and strike rate of 50.75 and 156.15 respectively  •  Getty Images

BCB president Nazmul Hassan has asked the national selectors to consider including some of the top performers from this season's BPL in Bangladesh's preparatory squad for the New Zealand tour next month. The 22-man squad had been announced on November 4, four days before the BPL re-started.
Hassan made special mention of Shahriar Nafees, who last played for Bangladesh in 2013, and the uncapped Mehedi Maruf.
His statement is incongruous with his earlier stance of letting the revamped selection committee to work independently, before submitting the team to him.
Nafees, who was named among the reserves for the squad's camp in Australia in mid-December, has made three fifties so far for Barisal Bulls. Maruf, also an opening batsman, went past Nafees as the top-scorer in this season's BPL with a 20-ball 33 for Dhaka Dynamites against Chittagong Vikings on Thursday. He now has 203 runs in five matches at an average and strike rate of 50.75 and 156.15 respectively.
"The biggest achievement for us is that the local players are playing well," Nazmul said in Chittagong on Thursday. "Mushfiqur [Rahim] is scoring runs again, Tamim [Iqbal] is doing well too. Among the older players, Shahriar Nafees and Mehedi Maruf are playing well. Having seen this I have already conveyed my message to our coach and the selectors, and I have also spoken to Akram Khan from cricket operations.
"I have told them that we will send additional players if required. I have spoken to them and asked them to think about how the good performers from the BPL can be included in the squad. There may be changes in the squad, or some additional players may go. Nothing has been confirmed as yet. My understanding is that one or two players may be included. They [team management] haven't confirmed anything with me yet."
The new selection process includes a separate committee, which includes the Bangladesh head coach Chandika Hathurusingha, team manager and BCB director Khaled Mahmud and cricket operations chairman Akram Khan, on top of the three-member selection panel that has Minhajul Abedin as chief selector and Habibul Bashar and Sajjad Ahmed as the other senior selectors.
This isn't the first time Hassan has spoken about selection matters: he had earlier talked about selection choices during the Afghanistan and England series. This means that the president has spoken about his choices three times during or ahead of Bangladesh's international fixtures.
In June this year, Faruque Ahmed had resigned as chief selector, hours after the BCB ratified significant changes to the way Bangladesh squads would be chosen.
Bangladesh's preparatory squad for New Zealand tour: Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Mominul Haque, Mahmudullah, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Sabbir Rahman, Soumya Sarkar, Mosaddek Hossain, Nurul Hasan, Mehedi Hasan, Shuvagata Hom, Nazmul Hossain Shanto, Taijul Islam, Mashrafe Mortaza, Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed, Shafiul Islam, Subashis Roy, Mohammad Shahid, Ebadot Hossain, Tanveer Haider.

Mohammad Isam is ESPNcricinfo's Bangladesh correspondent. @isam84