Captaincy issue delays Asia Cup squad announcement
NEWS DESK
Injury to some of the crucial players and declaration of the captain’s name for the T20 format forced the Bangladesh team selection panel to delay the announcement of the team for the Asia Cup, starting on August 27.
The captaincy issue basically made the things complicated. Board’s insiders said Test captain Shakib is favourite to be appointed as captain in this format too but what creates the problem that the BCB launched an investigation over his alleged involvement with a Betting Company.
If Shakib is found guilty, the board president Nazmul Hassan Papon said, they will take stern action against him as Betting is completely banned as per the law of Bangladesh and BCB too.
Papon earlier said they have considered four players including Shakib Al Hasan and Mahmudullah Riyad to appoint as the T20 captain before the Asia Cup.
Nurul Hasan Sohan, who led the side in the Zimbabwe T20 series and Liton Das are the other two names who are also in consideration of the board’s policy makers. Both are however got injured during the Zimbabwe series and are highly unlikely to play the Asia Cup.
As per the deadline, all participating nations would have to announce their Asia Cup team by August 8. However, with two days remaining of the deadline, chief selector Minhajul Abedin Nannu said they were waiting for the injury report of the players.
“How can we announce the team when some of the crucial players got injured. We have to get the update of those players before the announcement of the team,” Abdein said in Dhaka today (August 7, 2022).
“There is also the issue of captain of T20 format. It’s not our issue because the board will announce the name of the captain. Even though we have no headache over the issue but captain is an important cog of the team since his opinion in forming the team is necessary. We have to see first who is appointed as captain.”
The Asia Cup will be a T20 format this time to give the teams a better preparation for the T20 World Cup in Australia.
A total of 13 matches will be held in UAE’s two cities Sharjah and Dubai. Bangladesh are drawn in Group B alongside Sri Lanka and Afghanistan while India and its archrivals Pakistan are drawn in Group A and a team, promoted from the qualifiers will join them in this group.
Then the top two teams will go to the final through the Super Four League system. Papon also said that he will accompany the team in the Asia Cup this time to keep the team charged up.
Last time Bangladesh moved to the final of the Asia Cup but they lost to India eventually.
