BCB boss: It was my decision to drop Mahmudullah

“Every decision has been taken by me. I don’t know why Chandika Hathurusingha’s name always come out in these type of situations. No one told me that he (Mahmudullah) will not be in the ODI squad. Before it (squad) comes to me, it's not important what other people say,” Nazmul told the media at P Sara Oval in Colombo on Wednesday. “Firstly, Chandika does not send me anything, selectors always send me the list. And secondly, Mahmudullah was dropped due to off-form. This Test is very important for us. We have no objection about Tamim [Iqbal], Shakib [al Hasan], Riyad and Mushfiqur [Rahim]. They are equally important to us. But that does not mean that we have to play a cricketer who is underperforming for quite a long time. “There might have been more changes if Liton [Kumar Das] was not injured. Liton got injured and we did not change further,” he said. The BCB supremo said a player’s omission should never affect the team. “I want to make it clear that we like our senior players. We will forever honour their contribution for the team. But any player could be dropped from the team due to underperformance. It is natural that he might get frustrated at first. But if that frustration affects the whole team then that player should not play for Bangladesh,” said Nazmul. “If a player gets dropped and then the whole team get affected then we don’t want those kind of players in the side. This message is very clear. If a senior player gets dropped, then he should encourage the replacement player to play better for the sake of the team." he added. The BCB chief also informed that Mahmudullah had asked for a leave after being dropped from the second Test squad. “Mahmudullah was asked if he wanted to leave or stay in Sri Lanka. At first, his reaction was that he wanted to go to Bangladesh to spend a few days with his family. Then he called me and requested me for a leave. This is what happened. But at the moment, we are not giving him a leave,” he said. The BCB supremo added that Bangladesh will play a tri-nation T20I series alongside host Sri Lanka and India in March, 2018. “Sri Lanka want to celebrate their 70th year of independence. That’s why they arranged a tournament with India. And now, they invited us to join. We have accepted that. So it will be a tri-nation T20I series, starting from March 15, 2018,” he concluded.