Selectors emphasise Tigers’ fitness
The BCB National Selectors on Friday have announced that cricketers who are on the draft list for the upcoming T20 tournament, scheduled for next November-December, will have to undergo mandatory fitness tests before being considered eligible for the competition, report agencies.
The test has been planned to particularly assess the fitness levels of cricketers outside the National Team, High-Performance Team and Under-19 setups.
Chief National Selector Minhajul Abedin Nannu said: “We’ve been very encouraged by the individual fitness work done by the National Team, HP and Under-19 cricketers during the lockdown. The effort they put in helped them adjust quickly when group training and matches started.
“We expect the other cricketers, who may have been outside the setup, will show the same level of commitment to individual fitness and come prepared for the test.”
The schedule for the fitness test will be announced after the finalization of the player list for the draft. The final decision regarding the entire procedure will be taken after confirmation of the sponsors for the tournament.
The T20 tournament will be the second competition to be conducted by the BCB in the Covid environment. A three-team 50-over competition was recently held, with cricketers and members of the team management placed in a bio-bubble. BCB, meanwhile, is not convinced about hosting the remaining part of Dhaka Premier League – the country’s traditional 50-over tournament involving clubs from Dhaka, which is considered to be a major source of income for the majority of cricketers in Bangladesh.
The DPL came to an abrupt halt in March after completion of the first round of the tournament. The players involved in it were hoping for some sort of a road map to resume cricket and the upcoming domestic T20 tournament is a step in that direction taken by the BCB. A large number of cricketers – domestic cricketers, players from the national team, High Performance squad, and Under-19 – are expected to be part of the draft.