Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) President Nazmul Hassan pushed the ball to the court of Mashrafe Bin Mortaza about his much-talked retirement issue, ending the speculations that was hovering over the cricket fraternity after the 2019 World Cup in England, reports BSS.
Speaking to the media at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium, the BCB boss said Mashrafe has rights to decide about when he would walk into the sunset, considering his immense contribution for the country’s cricket. At the same time, the BCB president said the board would finalize a captain for the team, eying 2023 World Cup in the next board of directors meeting of the BCB, which is set to be held on March 8 at the BCB headquarters in Mirpur.
“The board will finalize who will be the captain. The board will decide someone as captain, whom they feel as good to do the job,” Papon said here on Sunday. “He (Mashrafe) will decide when he will retire from the cricket. Let him decide.”
Mashrafe who is currently playing just ODI format of cricket did not get chance to go into the field until the Zimbabwe ODI series since Bangladesh had not play any ODI cricket in this period.
But in the meantime, his retirement issue occupied the headlines most of the time as the BCB president offered a grand farewell for him by arranging a series at home. Mashrafe in reply denied taking any grand farewell and made it clear he would continue playing cricket.
BCB then included him in the three-match ODI series against Zimbabwe as captain and Papon made it clear it is going to be his last series as captain. He further made it clear Mashrafe would have to show his performance to make him available in the team as a general player.
The situation further became complicated during the pre-match conference of the first ODI in which Mashrafe made a rare outburst when the media personnel asked him whether his self-respect was hurt due to the current situation and his performance. Without further elaborating, Papon said that Mashrafe has already revealed what he wanted as far as the retirement issue is concerned.
“I saw the press conference and it appeared you people [media] were poking him too much. The situation in which he is going through now, you should stand by him but you don’t do which hurt him really. However, we should not discuss about it now. He has already said what he wants,” Papon disclosed.
“As I said earlier, as a player, we have no replacement of Shakib and as a captain we have no replacement of Mashrafe. If you notice, you will see we have given Mashrafe too many opportunities, which we didn’t do in case of others. Mashrafe’s matter is totally different.”
