Bangladesh Cricket Board will offer central contract to the cricketers based on performance in the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka, and the home series against the same opponents in May.
BCB cricket operations committee chairman Akram Khan informed this to the media Tuesday.
The board had initially decided to offer the contracts assessing performance in the home series against the West Indies and the just concluded away series against New Zealand.
BCB central contract sees changes in terms every year and this time, the papers will emphasize on the cricketers choosing to play the format of their choice.
This decision by the board has particularly emerged following the controversy of all-rounder Shakib al Hasan choosing to play in the Indian Premier League Twenty20 by skipping national duty.
“We are yet to declare the new contract for the players. We will assess performance in the two series against Sri Lanka. We wanted to sit following New Zealand series but there isn’t enough time to do this,” said BCB director Akram to the media Tuesday.
The former Bangladesh captain informed that the cricketers in the contract will have to mention the formats of cricket they want to play for Bangladesh and also mention if they have intention to play any franchise league by foregoing national duty.
Bangladesh national cricket team management will sit for a meeting Tuesday to set the course for the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka Cricket for two Tests, and also the squad.
Posted by Sports Tribune on Monday, 5 April 2021
“Our president (Nazmul Hasan) had mentioned this before and we will work accordingly. We are yet to have a detailed meeting on the terms of the contract. But there is no doubt that the new contract will see changes in terms and policies. The players will have to inform the format they want to play and also, if they want to play elsewhere (franchise leagues),” said Akram.
“A player will not be allowed to go anywhere apart from that mentioned in the paper. This understanding is open now. Before, the players used to deal with this personally with the board but now it will have to be on pen and paper. There will not be any scope for a change and one cannot claim that they are not being allowed to go to some tournament or being forced to play for the national team,” he added.
BCB in the last central contract had introduced separate contracts for red- and white-ball cricket, and had signed 16 cricketers.
Seven cricketers were offered contract for both red- and white-ball, while four were signed for Test cricket only.
For white-ball cricket, the BCB had offered contract to five cricketers.
Veteran right-arm pacer Mashrafe bin Mortaza removed himself from the central contract, while left-arm all-rounder Shakib was not offered any as he was then serving a one-year ban imposed by the International Cricket Council.