Aftab appointed coach of Bangla Tigers in T20 league
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|| CF Coreesondent ||
Former national cricketer Aftab Ahmed will guide Bangla Tigers as head coach in the upcoming T10 league.
Last month, the franchise-based 10-over tournament announced Bangla Tigers as the newest team to join the third edition, scheduled to start from November 24.
While Aftab will act the head coach of Bangla Tigers they have roped in Nafees Iqbal team manager.
Aftab gained reputation as “head coach,” guiding Legends of Rupganj to second place in the last edition of Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League and very recently, the former Bangladesh batsman has been appointed head coach of Chittagong for the National Cricket League, scheduled to begin Thursday.
Meanwhile, Nafees has experience as team manager for Bangladesh Premier League T20 side Khulna Titans and Bangladesh A team.
“It is an honor to work with a professional team like Bangla Tigers. The management strongly believes in promoting Bangladesh cricket in the T10 League and the road map has been drawn in that way,’’ said Nafees.
‘’This is the second occasion that I am set to work for a team outside Bangladesh [the first having come with Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League T20],” he added.
A bunch of young and emerging Bangladesh cricketers are likely to be highlighted in the Abu Dhabi T10 League while the draft for the third edition of the league is set to take place on October 16.
The opportunity is being drawn by Bangla Tigers, one of the newest teams in the tournament, who are set to represent Bangladesh cricket. In the T10 league, teams are each allowed to sign 14 cricketers in total.
It is mandatory for a team to sign two UAE cricketers while the rest of the squad – one as Icon, three from category A, three from category B, two from category C, two players from Emerging category and one from Associate category – can be formed with players from any country.
The team are co-owned by former Bangladesh Cricket Board director Sirajuddin Alamgir and Yasin Chowdhury, owner of FMC Sports in the Chittagong Premier Cricket League.
“T10 is one of the latest formats in world cricket and so far it has attracted some good attention just because of the length of the game. A T10 game runs for 90 minutes, same to that of football. It is a bitter truth that longer-version cricket is failing to pull in crowd into the stadium nowadays. International Cricket Council has shown great interest in the format too. This short format is good for the crowd who don’t want to spend the whole day in the stadium,” said Sirajuddin.
“Given the by-laws of the tournament we can take a lot of cricketers from Bangladesh in the 14-member team. This I believe is a good opportunity for young and emerging cricketers of the country, they are getting to play at an international platform and take experience from the dressing room. This experience will surely help them moving ahead in Bangladesh cricket circuit,’’ he added.
