Lottery will decide Mashrafee’s future- BCB

|| CF Correspondent ||

Former national ODI skipper Mashrafee bin Murtaza participation in the ongoing Bangabandhu T20 Cup will be decided on lottery as two teams expressed interest to have him in the ongoing Bangabandhu T20 Cup.

Cricfrenzy learnt Fortune Barishal had shown interest while Gemcon Khulna also revealed that they are also planning to have him.

‘’We have sent an email to BCB for Mashrafee and waiting for a reply from the board,’’ said top official of Barishal told Sun on Thursday and later Khulna joined the race.

‘’Mashrafee is a big name and naturally we are interested. We have emailed to the board for him and now they (board) will decide if other teams also show interest for him,’’ Khulna manager Nafees Iqbal told reporters at the Sher-e-Bangla Academy premises on Thursday.

‘’As his name was not in the draft so all the five teams have the right to have him,’’ he said.

BCB initially did not include Mashrafee’s name in the draft list as a result of his knee injury but have confirmed that he can be bought outside the draft to participate in the ongoing competition if he is deemed fit. Mashrafee earlier did not participate in the BCB President's Cup after testing positive for Corona.

A member of Bangabandhu T20 Cup’s technical committee said that they will put him into lottery as two teams are ready to have him in their squad.

‘’If more than one team is interested in him we will put him in lottery because there should be a level playing field for all the sides. First he (Mashrafee) has to inform us that he is fit to play and later we will decide our next course of action,’’ said the member.

BCB trainer Tushar Kanti Hawlader, who was supervising Mashrafee during the individual training session, admitted the fact that he was overweight but added that the veteran can attain full fitness soon.

‘’The way he is practicing it will not take time for him to get back his fitness. If he wants to play he will play because if he feels he can manage these four overs with this fitness he can play,’’ Tushar told reporters after watching him closely in the nets as well as while doing his fitness drills.