'I won't be part of new system'

The Bangladesh cricket team's chief selector Faruque Ahmed has said last night that he will not work under the new selection process which was officially adopted in the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) board meeting earlier yesterday.

 “The decision has been taken, I will not work under this system,” Faruque told The Daily Star over phone from the United States, where he is currently away on holiday. “I will officially submit the letter of resignation to the BCB once I return.”

In two separate stints as a national selector Faruque has had his hand in selecting teams that broke new ground in making the second round of the World Cup for the first time in 2007, played Asia Cup 2012 and 2016 finals, made the World Cup 2015 quarterfinals and won home series against Pakistan, India and South Africa in 2015.

The board meeting confirmed the plans for the new selection process -- namely expanding the personnel involved beyond the previous three-member committee to include the head coach, team manager and the cricket operations committee chairman, all three of whom now have to endorse the team before it goes to the BCB president for final approval.

“I have made my position clear before, that it will be difficult to work in this system. We have to have scope to work and work without interference. Selection is an area where you have to work with freedom without interference, because then you have accountability. Then people will know who is behind the decisions,” Faruque said.

“Till now, before we sat down to select the team we used to call the coach and take his suggestions. Sometimes we called the captain if he had any special preferences. We then used to finalise the team, sign on it and send it. Then, just to make it official, the cricket operations chairman signed it and sent it to the president,” he explained the system as it has been running till date.

“It was a normal system,” he said of the panel he headed.