Franchise duties on the agenda before red-ball assignments

Following postponement of the away series against Afghanistan, the BCB has availed NOCs to contracted players to play in franchise leagues ahead of a summer of red-ball cricket.

The Bangladesh team returned to the country on Friday following a disappointing World Cup. The team do not have international assignments before the Test assignments in against Pakistan and it was an opportunity to play franchise cricket.

Stars such as paceman Taskin Ahmed and Mustafizur Rahman, along with batter Towhid Hridoy departed for Sri Lanka to play the Lankan Premier League, scheduled to be played from July 1 till 21.

Colombo Strikers secured the services of Taskin while Dambulla Warriors drafted in both Hridoy and Mustafizur. Meanwhile ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan and pacer Shoriful Islam will be playing for Bangla Tigers Missisagua in the Global T20 league in Canada, slated to be played from July 25 till August 11 while Mohammad Saifuddin and Rishad Hossain will feature for Montreal Tigers and Toronto Nationals respectively.

"When players came to be aware that the Afghanistan series will not be played in July, they applied for NOC," a BCB source confirmed.

BCB cricket operations chairman Jalal Yunus had also confirmed on Saturday that the players have been given various windows to play in franchise leagues. "They have been told to report on August 10," Jalal had said.

It was learned that August 12 is the maximum time frame that a cricketer may be availed NOC to play in the franchise leagues. Shakib, also signed for Los Angeles Knight Riders, a Major League Cricket (MLC) franchise and the tournament is scheduled to be played between July 5 and 29th.

Among the players leaving for franchise duties, only Shoriful and Shakib are currently playing red-ball cricket. The preparation camp would begin in August and will allow the players to complete the entirety of their franchise league duties. The plan going forward is to focus on upcoming red-ball assignments and many of the experienced stars such as Mushfiqur Rahim and Mominul Haque have already been training with Bangla Tigers during the just-concluded T20 World Cup.

"Bangladesh Tigers are in Chittagong continuing their preparations. The national team camp would be planned alongside that camp. Although we have not allocated venue [for national team camp] it is likely to take place in Chattogram. We have red-ball series against Pakistan and against India the red-ball assignments are going to take place first and that would be the main focus," Shahriar Nafees, in-charge at BCB's cricket operations, told The Daily Star on Sunday.

The Bangla Tigers cricketers will go on a break after three days before heading to Chattogram again with players availed a 15-day active break.