Dhaka,  Saturday
27 July 2024

Shanto the new captain in all three formats replacing Shakib

Messenger Sports

Published: 14:13, 12 February 2024

Shanto the new captain in all three formats replacing Shakib

Najmul Hossain Shanto and Shakib Al Hasan Photo : Courtesy

Najmul Hossain Shanto has been announced as the captain of Bangladesh in all three formats while Gazi Ashraf Hossain Lipu has been made the national team's Chief Selector.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) made the announcements to the media after the 9th BCB Board of Directors meeting on Monday.

BCB President Nazmul Hassan Papon spoke with the media at Mirpur's Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium and made the announcements.

"Shanto will be the captain of the team in all three formats for the next year," he said.

Bangladesh will play in the T20 World Cup later this year and Shanto will be taking the reigns over from Shakib Al Hasan. 

The left-handed batter hasn't been having the best of times in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) but had better results leading the national team earlier. 

The Tigers won their first-ever ODI and T20I against New Zealand in New Zealand in their last international series under Shanto's captaincy.

Prior to that, Bangladesh also won their first-ever Test at home in Sylhet against the same opposition when Shanto was made the interim captain.   

"We spoke with Shakib and his eye problems still remain and that makes his availability for the national team uncertain. Otherwise, he would have been our first choice to be captain in all formats," Papon added.

He explained that the vice-captaincy would be determined by player availability and would vary from series to series.  

Papon also added that Hannan Sarkar and Abdur Razzak have been added as national team selectors alongside chief selector Lipu. 

Minhazul Abedin Nannu who was the previous Chief Selector and Habibul Bashar who was a national team selector did not have their contracts extended in their current roles after it ended on 31 December but they will be in the BCB in some other capacity and role as they are "too valuable to lose", the BCB chief explained. 

Razzaq was the only member of the previous selection committee that had his contract extended.

"Lipu was the best candidate available and it was a matter of seeing if he was interested in the post. Once we saw that he was, it was just a matter of making things official," Papon explained. 

Other issues discussed in the meeting were the matter of Tamim Iqbal and his future along with Bangladesh's disastrous ODI World Cup performance report.

"I will see the World Cup performance report and then make a decision based on it and it won't take much time to do."

There will also be two new assistant batting and bowling coaches and their names will be announced soon. 

Mahmudullah Riyad, on the back of a good ODI World Cup showing, has been added to the list of 21 players who have been offered central contracts though the full list hasn't been revealed yet. 

In the new central contracts, match fees and bonuses have increased for players though their base salaries remain the same. 

Messenger/Sumon