BCB approves 'controversial' two-tier selection committee

The Bangladesh Cricket Board has given the go ahead for the two-tier selection process which grants posts for the head coach along with the team manager among its ranks.

Sports Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 19 June 2016, 06:19 PM
Updated : 19 June 2016, 08:07 PM

The decision came at a board meeting on Sunday amidst much criticism over selecting national team players in two stages through a selection panel and a selection committee.

Word of including the coach and the manager spread about a month ago. On May 30, BCB President Nazmul Hassan said only the coach would be in the new committee, not the manager.

But a week later he went back on his word, saying both would be included in a two-stage process.

"The selection committee comprises six members, three of them are in the selection panel, which will have a chief," Hassan said after the meeting on Sunday.

"They are in charge of running selections for all the players. They will determine who will come (into the team) from the whole country."

The chief of cricket operations will call a meeting before a series…the coach and manager both will be there.

"The coach will notify any strategies he has, like what kind of players he would need for the series. The manager, too, can state any recommendation if he wants."

A two-stage selection committee is rare in cricket history, while including a manager in it is even more so.

The idea of making significant changes in the method of picking players and giving one of the committee's seats to the manager, who supervises team discipline and logistics, has been met with much criticism following the proposal.

A widespread assumption is that the new model has been put forth to grant Khaled Mahmud, the team manager at present, a place in the selection method.

"If the players have any idea, the manager will inform the selection committee of that. It's not that the coach and the manager will always have demands, but they will tell if they do," Hassan said.

"Then they will all sign and send me the list of the team." he added.