Mohammedan Sporting Club is eyeing a return to their glory days after signing some of Bangladesh’s leading cricketers ahead of the upcoming edition of the Dhaka Premier League, the country’s traditional Dhaka-club based tournament. The 50-over tournament, scheduled to be played in March 2022, was played in the T20 format last season but is expected to return to the original format.
On Sunday, the traditional club signed the likes of Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur Rahim, Soumya Sarkar and Taskin Ahmed. Apart from the quartet, MSC also have some seasoned campaigners in their ranks that will help them push for the title they last won in 2008-09.
MSC director AGM Sabbir told Cricbuzz on Monday that they are confident of retaining Shakib Al Hasan as well, who brought the club back into the limelight by leading them last season.
“We are hopeful that we will also retain Shakib,” Sabbir said.
MSC have also signed Mehedy Hasan, Abu Jayed, Shuvagato Hom and a couple of seasoned cricketers in the domestic circuit alongside youngsters like Parvez Hossain and pacer Hasan Mahmud.
MSC had been a traditional force in the domestic circuit but failed to live up to their reputation in the last decade and in the process, their arch rivals Abahani Krira Chakra Limited emerged as a super power.
“Look we are looking forward to bring back our old glory,” said Sabbir. “Our fans are quite frustrated with our result in the recent past and now we have an elected body determined to change the scenario.”
Sabbir also conceded that even though they have picked some of the leading national stars they are well aware that they might have to play without them at some point or the other due to their national commitments.
“Some of our cricketers are playing across formats while there are some who play in one or two formats and we are well aware that we might not have all of them for the whole season as they might be busy for national duty,” said Sabbir. “So we focused on having a squad that can perform even if the national stars are not available due to the national duty.”