ZCZC
BSP-19
CRICKET-MASHRAFE-RETIREMENT
Mashrafe seeks two months to ponder about his retirement
DHAKA, Aug 17, 2019 (BSS)- The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has shelved the idea of arranging a one-off ODI against Zimbabwe to give Mashrafe Bin Mortaza a grand farewell after the ODI captain asked the board to give him two months to think about his future.
The decision to cancel the plan came after BCB president Nazmul Hassan Papon discussed with Mashrafe on his retirement issue and asked him whether they can arrange a one-off ODI against Zimbabwe, to which the captain showed his reluctance.
Mashrafe has already retired from the T20 cricket in 2017 and didn’t play any Test since 2009. With Bangladesh’s next ODI series is on March, 2020, his retirement plan seemed to be on hold for the time being.
“Basically I sat with Mashrafe for two reasons-one is to inform him about the head coach since he is the ODI captain. I also discussed with Shakib about the head coach since Shakib is also the captain of other formats,” Papon said here on Saturday.
“The second reason is to ask him whether we will arrange a lone ODI with Zimbabwe. But he said it is too early since Bangladesh has no ODI series scheduled before March, 2020. He said it will be good for him if we don’t arrange any series for him at this moment. He also said that he needs two months to take a decision on his retirement issue. So we complied with it.”
BCB however did never think such plan to give a befitting send-off to any player in the past but in Mashrafe’s case they mulled about it, acknowledging his contribution to the country’s cricket.
When asked, BCB president said the player also should think about his future and discuss with the board.
“In that case, the board can take decision to how it can make the farewell memorable one,” Papon said.
“But in our country, the players are not used to think about his retirement issue. The situation is always like that they want the board to discard them.”
BSS/SMP/AU/16:10 hrs