BCB has full faith on senior players: Khaled Mahmud

Dhaka, 25 July - Director of Bangladesh team Khaled Mahmud Sujon

dismissed the notion that the senior players were dropped from the Zimbabwe-
bound T20 squad in the name of rest.

He also made it clear that the senior players are in the board's greater plan
for the upcoming multinational tournaments-- Asia Cup and T20 World Cup.

Talks were doing the rounds about the fate of the senior players when
Mahmudullah Riyad, the original captain of T20 format and Mushfiqur Rahim
were rested from the T20 series only.

Earlier, Shakib took a break from the Zimbabwe series and Tamim Iqbal had
already retired from the shortest format of the cricket.

BCB Cricket Operations Committee Chairman Jalal Yunus talked about a new
brand of T20 team when Nurul Hasan Sohan was appointed its captain.

However, the idea of this brand new T20 team in T20 is only for the Zimbabwe
series. After these three matches, BCB will walk the path of forming the team
with senior-junior combination, said the team director who is also an
influential director of the board.

"At some point, we've to bring up changes and that will be a big deal. But I
would not say that the transition period has already started. We believe
seniors still have the ability to give something. I think in the interim
period it's our job to highlight the juniors properly," Mahmud said here
today after the lunch with the Zimbabwe-bound cricketers, arranged by Cricket
Operations at a five-star hotel in the capital.

During the lunch, ODI Captain Tamim Iqbal and Zimbabwe T20 series Captain
Nurul Hasan Sohan were also present.

 Team Director Mahmud was unable to be with the Bangladesh team during their
tour in West Indies. However as the board organised a lunch, he was there as
a policy maker to discuss the overall situation ahead of the Zimbabwe series.

Mahmud said there is no change in the leadership or there is no plan to keep
the seniors out. At the same time, he said there is no plan to experiment
also as they are yet to strengthen their feet in T20 format.

"Many people are talking about experiment in this format but we are not going
to do any experiment. We're yet to prove ourselves in this format. It's not
basically Riyad, Mushfiqur being left out of the squad, or Shakib being left
out, I think we want to see some guys. We want to play them in a place which
is comparatively easier. We want to know about them. On the other hand, we
already knew the capability of the senior players," Mahmud remarked.

Not for only one or two matches to watch the youngsters, Mahmud is in favor
of giving them a chance for the whole series.

"We want to give these boys enough chances to show their mettle. If we talk
about Munim Shahriar, he played only two matches in the two T20 series. He
couldn't play some more matches due to injury. I think it is very important
for cricketers to get a chance to play the whole series. You can't judge
players after just one or two matches. They should get enough chances before
being left out."