‘Don’t want to sit local players and play foreign stars’

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) brought competitive cricket back on the field after seven months following the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic. Cricket in the country had been halted since mid-march and with the opening match of the BCB President's Cup going smoothly today, BCB president Nazmul Hassan reiterated that the board is thinking about how to focus on local stars for the corporate T20 league just as is being done in the ongoing three-team tournament.

"We've gone step by step and arrived at the first step with the start of today's tournament. If we end this tournament well, we can then focus on the T20 tournament in a big scale. We're trying to start our domestic cricket in a bigger way," BCB president Nazmul told reporters today.

The BCB president reiterated that the idea was to gather experience to eventually be able to hold international fixtures again. BCB wants the T20 tournament to have teams of equal strength and quality. Asked if foreign players will be involved, Nazmul said: "We're discussing (the involvement) of foreign players and no final decision has been taken. If we can bring foreign players then its good but it's not like we must bring them. Our first priority is to create opportunity for local players to play."

He informed that the BCB are looking to come to a decision in two days. "We're looking to see which foreign players are available and what their quality would be. It could be that a local player might be better than a foreign player. We don't want to sit our local players and play foreign stars. We have to first understand the standard of (foreign) players who might be coming."

The BCB president said that the idea of a players' draft for foreign stars could also throw off the balance between the squads.

"If we make it open (players' draft), then a corporate house might make a very strong team and make other teams weak.  Then the competitiveness will be lacking. Our main objective is to increase the quality of local players and we want all the five side to be of equal strength.," he said.

"If anyone (corporate house) wants to own a team, they can or otherwise the BCB will run them. It's not a matter of earning money. The objective is to get cricket back on the field," he added.