19 enlisted Icon players for HCT draft

19 national team players were named Icon players for the upcoming Hockey Champions Trophy (HCT) when the Bangladesh Hockey Federation (BHF) revealed a 172-member list ahead of Monday's draft.

Six franchises can choose only a single player each from the list of icons after which the remaining players will drop down to the A+ category, where 15 players already feature. Unsold players from the A+ category will fall to A and so on.

Teams are allowed to sign a maximum of 13 local players [one icon, two A+, three A, four B and three C], one direct signing and four foreign players to round out an 18-man squad.

"We think all the players of the national hockey team are equal and deserve to be icon players, so we decided to keep all 19 players who last represented Bangladesh on the international stage as icon players," draft committee chairman and BHF vice president Sajed A A Adel said. "We also wanted to avoid any controversy about icon players."

172 local players will participate in the draft, but franchises require only 84 for the first-ever franchise league, which is scheduled to get underway from October 28 at the Maulana Bhasani Hockey Federation.

Icon players : Milon Hossain, Rasel Mahmud Jimmy, Ashraful Islam, Khorshedur Rahman, Farhad Ahmed Shitul, Deen Islam Emon, Fazle Hossain Rabbi, Sarwar Hossain, Roman Sarkar, Nayeem Uddin, Biplob Kujur, Sohanur Rahman Sabuj, Mehdi Hasan, Arshad Hossain, Pushkor Khisha Mimo, Abu Sayeed Nippon, Rezaul Karim Babu, Prince Lal and Rakibul Hasan Rocky