Former Bangladesh captain and Abahani coach Khaled Mahmud Sujon defended the BCB's stance of not extending Mustafizur Rahman's NOC for the IPL and bringing him back for next month's Zimbabwe series, saying that 'country comes first.'

"At the end of the day, I believe, the country should always come first," Sujon said after Abahani's match against Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur today.

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'Mustafizur has nothing to learn from IPL'

Mustafizur is currently in India, playing for the defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the IPL. The left-arm pacer has been an important member of the Chennai set-up this year, claiming 10 wickets in five games and is third on the wicket-takers' list.

However, the pacer will have to cut his stint short with CSK and return to Bangladesh for the Tiger's five-match Twenty20 series at home against Zimbabwe, starting on May 3.

It's not uncommon for cricket boards to allow their players a leave from international assignments to take part in the IPL. But Sujon believes that calling back Mustafizur for the Zimbabwe series is the correct decision.

"I would've been glad if Mustafizur could've played the whole IPL. There would've been no issues if the national team didn't have any series. Now, some may say that the New Zealand cricketers are staying back for the IPL. But we don't have 10-12 bowlers like Mustafizur, we need to keep that in mind as well," he added.

Yesterday, the chairman of cricket operations at the BCB Jalal Yunus made headlines by claiming that Mustafizur had nothing to learn by playing in the IPL.

Sujon didn't agree with that sentiment but also explained what Jalal might have been trying to express with that statement.

"You can learn from everywhere… Maybe he [Jalal] didn't mean it like that. He probably meant that Mustafizur has been playing for many years, he is not a young pacer like Tanzim Hasan Sakib. He is already a very big name in world cricket. He probably meant it from that angle. The young Indian pacers can learn from Mustafizur, that's what he meant."

However, Sujon also said that Bangladesh didn't need Mustafizur's services to beat Zimbabwe at home and the team might rest the pacer for a few matches in the series to keep him refreshed for the forthcoming ICC T20 World Cup in June.

"Not really [needing Mustafizur to win against Zimbabwe]… Jalal also spoke about Mustafizur's workload management. Mustafizur might not even play in the first two matches."