Reluctance to play longer versions will be dealt with, confirms Jalal Yunus
Bangladesh’s recent performance in the longest version of international cricket has forced the BCB (Bangladesh Cricket Board) to rethink about the participation of the players in domestic first-class circuit.
BCB president Nazmul Hassan had recently revealed that some senior players, including the Test captain Shakib Al Hasan, have shown reluctance to play Tests. Most of the senior counterparts in the national team do not appear in the first-class competitions as well.
BCB media committee chairman Jalal Yunus confirmed that the board is reconsidering its “soft attitude” regarding the players’ availability during the first-class tournaments. He also revealed that players unconcerned at making domestic first-class appearances will not be considered for selection.
“We must implement this policy from the upcoming edition of NCL and BCL.” Yunus was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz. “So far we have shown soft attitude towards it but now it is high time we change our stance because we have noticed that there are few players who are not interested to play long-version cricket.”
Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal haven’t played any domestic first-class matches in the last three years. Mustafizur Rahman too missed the BCL (Bangladesh Cricket League) last season due to his IPL franchise duty.
“Whenever it comes to playing first-class matches, our players come up with some kind of excuses to avoid it. We have got a long-standing policy that the players will not be considered for national team unless they play domestic first-class cricket,” he added.
Bangladesh have lost all of their last three Test series since registering a historic win over Australia in September last year. Although they have been pretty consistent in ODIs, the Tigers’ unimpressive display in Tests certainly raises concern over their future in the format.
“It just cannot go on because we have to develop the habit of playing long form cricket instead of just putting all our energy in the shorter formats. If you look at the Test result of our recent past it is surely quite alarming as we failed to prove our worth on several occasions and that is largely due to lack of skill and temperament,” said Yunus.
