Faruk Ahmed Bangladesh's new chief selector

The Bangladesh Cricket Board has named Faruk Ahmed the country's new chief selector. Nazmul Hassan, the board president, confirmed the appointment, saying that there was voting among the directors to choose between Faruk and Minhajul Abedin, a current selector.

Whether such a method was used to appoint previous chief selectors is unknown, but it clearly demonstrates the support that Faruk enjoys among the BCB directors.

"In the last board meeting I had spoken about two names," Hassan said. "Between them, we have picked the person who was voted for the most. He is Faruk Ahmed and he has been signed up for two years. The letter will go to him today. Nannu [Abedin] and Shumon [Habibul Bashar] are there, they will be national selectors."

Faruk, who played a sprinkling of ODIs between 1988 and 1999, had served as chief selector from 2003 to 2007, a period during which the team made significant progress. He took over after the disastrous 2003 World Cup, in which Bangladesh lost to Canada and Kenya. He, along with then captain Habibul Bashar and coach Dav Whatmore. formed a good combination to steer Bangladesh to the Super Eights phase of the 2007 World Cup.

Faruk now takes over at a time when the team is winning regularly at home. He will look to maintain the "stability", Faruk said: "My major goal is to continue working towards developing the national team keeping our stability in place. We cannot make changes for the sake of changing because they have been playing for together for quite some time now.

"I think the challenge is quite different from my earlier stint. During that time we were trying to develop a niche for ourselves on the world map but now that is not the case. We are winning on many occasions and it has raised our expectations as well."

Faruk's first international assignment is Sri Lanka's tour of Bangladesh in mid-January. Before that, he will be asked to oversee the three-match Twenty20 series between Bangladesh and Bangladesh A that begins on Wednesday.