BCB offers natl selectors job to Razzak
Board seeks
cricketers with clean image for coaching, managerial & junior selectors posts
MD ABU TALHA SARKER, Dhaka
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has offered the post of national selector to left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak, but he has not yet decided whether to take up the offer.
The BCB has been seeking a string of ex-national cricketers with spotless and clean images for its different development and managerial works for a long time. The BCB has already appointed some such players in its coaching and managerial jobs. Former pace bowler Talha Jubair, batsman Foisal Hossain Dickens, batsman Javed Omar Belim and former keeper-turned-captain Khaled Mashud Pilot have taken up BCB jobs. Of them, Talha and Dickens are in coaching while Belim and Pilot are in managerial stints. Pilot had toured Pakistan with the Bangladesh Emerging Team and Belim have toured with the Bangladesh national womens team on several occasions.
The board wants to extend the body of the junior selection panel further along with the national selection panel. They have opened new wings, for which they require coaching staff along with managerial staff to accomplish the works properly. BCB director and its Games Development Committee chairman Khaled Mahmud said they want to increase the age-group selectors from four to eight members to reduce the workload. Currently, Hannan Sarker, Ahsanul Haque Sheezan, Sajjadul Alam Shipon and Hashibul Hossain Shanto form the age-group selectors. They want to appoint at least four more cricketers with the current crop of selectors. For this, they are searching for some players with clean images to appoint to the posts. They have given proposals to some of those players whose cricketing careers are close to an end to take up BCB jobs. The cricketers are Abdur Razzak, Shahriar Nafees, Tushar Imran, Mohammad Ashraful and Mohammad Sharif. But they are reluctant to quit their cricketing careers right away to take up the BCB offers because they know they will not get much financial benefits from the BCB jobs after ending their playing careers. That is why they want to continue their playing careers as long as possible.
The board is running its national selection panel with Minhajul Abedin Nannu and Habibul Bashar Sumon after Faruque Ahmed resigned from the post of the BCBs chief selector. The board has evinced its interest in left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak.
BCB director and its Cricket Operation Committee chairman Akram Khan, through a third party, has made an attempt to know Razzaks mind about his interest in becoming a national selector. But the veteran spinner sought some more time to take his decision because he is playing in the Bangabandhu-Dhaka Premier League (DPL) for the 201920 season. This year Razzak wrote his name down for a new team of Mohammedan Sporting Club (MSC) and played the first round game for the 2020 DPL.
The BCB has a list of a few more names at hand, but they want to pick one from among the Test-playing cricketers. Of them, the name of former national team pacer Manjurul Islam has been discussed for a long time along with Shahriar Hossain Biddyut and Aftab Ahmed. The names of left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak and batsman Shahriar Nafees have recently been added to the list.
Manjurul, Aftab and Biddyut are in the coaching profession and have already earned ample experience and fame to conduct coaching at home and abroad. Biddyut, who is busy coaching in New Zealand, is reluctant to go back to the country, Aftab and Manjurul are now busy coaching in domestic cricket, while the latter duo is still playing in domestic cricket. Razzak is now approaching the end of his career as he is about to cross 38. But Shahriar Nafees is 35. He can continue his game for some more years if he wishes, having kept his fitness. Considering the image and career in mind, Razzak is likely to come first among the above players.
I told Habibul Bashar to talk with Razzak. He (Razzak) has sought some more time to take his decision because he is playing in the Premier League. It seems to me that he wants to play more in the domestic league, said Akram Khan. Razzak confirmed the proposal from the board. Talks have been held. Ive sought some more time to decide the matter. Actually, I wanted to inform them after the conclusion of the Premier League, Razzak explained.
As the league has been postponed for an indefinite period, Ill think about the matter now, Razzak added. Razzak is still now one of the frontline wicket-taking bowlers in the countrys first-class cricket. He enjoys enough demand in the Dhaka Premier League, too. If he can play regularly in the league, there are financial benefits for him. That is why the cricketer is dilly-dallying in taking a final decision to take up the BCB job, which would mean quitting his chequered playing career.
I have to take up a new job quitting my cricket, which I have been playing since the past 18 to 19 years. To be honest, its not easy for me to decide. Its better to think more about it before making a firm decision. There will be no regret for it then, he added.
If Razzak is not agreeable, then, in that case, the name of the second option might be proposed to the board, because both members of the selection panel expect that the board would appoint a third selector, which might facilitate a reduction in their workload.
