BCB sit to find Mashrafee’s successor
Image : Getty
|| CF Correspondent ||
Bangladesh Cricket Board will choose the next ODI captain as they are scheduled to hold a board meeting at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium today.
The central agenda of the board meeting is picking the new ODI skipper for Bangladesh with Mashrafee bin Mortaza vacating the captaincy position on Friday.
Mashrafee called is quit as Bangladesh ODI skipper after establishing himself as the most successful captain in the country’s history, with 50 wins in 88 ODIs, an extremely hard act to follow.
The board is likely to announce an interim captain for the remainder of the year, to keep the option of giving the reigns to Sakib al Hasan once his ban ends as they are keen on having him as the Bangladesh captain for the next World Cup, according to some officials that suggest that the next Bangladesh ODI skipper will most likely hold the position temporarily only to relinquish the job after Sakib’s ban ends in October.
Sakib was expected to take on the captaincy role once after Mashrafee left the post and lead the side in the next World Cup in 2023 but the board was forced to hit pause on this plan when the all-rounder received a two-year ban (one year suspended) from the International Cricket Council for not disclosing corrupt approaches.
BCB is likely to keep their faith on the established players of the ODI side for the job and not take a bet on a young player and currently there are three such likely candidates for the post in the Bangladesh ODI side, namely Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah.
Mahmudullah, who is already leading the Twenty20 side, would become captain in all white ball formats if he is handed the reign in ODIs.
With the ICC Twenty20 World Cup in Australia set to begin in October, Bangladesh are focusing more on the shortest format of the game, having only four ODIs lined up until that period, one against Pakistan next month and three against Ireland in May.
BCB will also evaluate the coronavirus situation in Pakistan in the meeting, as the team is set to travel the country on March 29 for the final part of their split series.
The Board is also expected form a technical committee in the meeting to decide who to pick from the some 25 bidders for the construction of the proposed Sheikh Hasina International Cricket Stadium in Savar. lso BCB will decide who will be invited to celebrate the birth anniversary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at the board meeting on Sunday. BCB might be planning to bring some of India's renowned artists to Bangabandhu's birthday program. Among them is AR Rahman.
The date of the next month’s annual general meeting of the BCB is also likely to be fixed in the meeting.
