Shakib off to T-10, Fizz denied NOC

With the T20 party named Bangladesh Premier League now a thing of the past, Bangladesh's newly appointed Test captain Shakib Al Hasan set off for new frontiers yesterday when he left for the UAE to take part in the T10 Cricket League. Shakib will obtain a no-objection-certificate (NOC) from the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) for the tournament scheduled to begin today with Shakib's team Kerala Kings playing against Bengal Tigers.

Mustafizur Rahman was supposed to turn up for the Bengal Tigers, but the left-arm pacer was not granted an NOC.

The third player from Bangladesh to feature in the league, Tamim Iqbal, has been granted an NOC to play for Pakhtoon, but will not leave till after his hearing today, in which he will answer a show-cause notice for criticising the wicket at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur after the match between Comilla Victorians and Rangpur Riders on December 2.

It is thought that Mustafizur was denied an NOC because the board want to be careful about the injury-prone bowler who has suffered two injury breaks during his two-year career, the latest setback seeing him miss the ODI leg of the South Africa tour in September-October with a twisted ankle which also had him missing the first two legs of the BPL.

On November 13, the BCB had also decided to grant contracted players a maximum of two NOCs to play in overseas leagues.

The T10 Cricket League will feature six franchises and run till December 17.