The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) slashed the number of the central contract players and decided not to increase the salary, citing the reason of the cricketers’ poor performances in the last year. As many as six players were out from the contract as the board retained only 10 players from the list of the last year. In addition the board decided to include three rookie players in the contract in a bid to inspire them to show their mettle. The Cricket Operations are given the duty to pick three emerging players who should be included into the contract.

The players who out from the contract were Imrul Kayes, Sabbir Rahman, Soumya Sarkar, Mosaddek Hossain Saikat, Taskin Ahmed and Kamrul Islam Rabbi.

Players retained their spot were Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Tamim Iqbal, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah Riyad, Mominul Haque, Mustafizur Rahman, Mehidy Hasan Miraj, Taijul Islam and Rubel Hossain.

The grade of the players will be decided later. As per the last contract, four players—Mashrafe, Tamim, Shakib and Mushfiqur offered the top grade (A+) with BDT 400,000 per month. Mahmudullah was in the grade A with BDT 300,000. The salary of the B grade was BDT 200,000 while the C and D grade salary range was BDT 150,000 and 100,000 respectively.

The captain and vice-captain got additional BDT 20,000 and 10,000 per month on top of their respective salaries.

“Just few months ago, we revised their salary, so I didn’t find any reason to increase it again,” said BCB president Nazmul Hassan Papon.

“The cricket operations and selectors prepared the list of the contracted players. The players, out from the contract, was purely cricketing reason as the management wasn’t satisfied with their performance.”

“We are yet to finalise the name of three rookie players but a segment to include them in the contract was started to inspire them more.”

Meanwhile, the BCB president Nazmul Hassan Papon was unanimously decided to be the president of Asian Cricket Council (ACC) for the coming two years. His tenure will start from July 1. Pakistan’s Shahryar Khan is the incumbent president whose tenure will be expired on June 30.

 “In the last meeting of the ACC, the board members decided that Bangladesh will get the post of president and they requested to send a name from our country. In today’s meeting the BCB decided to send my name as the president,” Papon said.