Bangladesh Cricket Board officials said on Thursday that they have provided No-Objection certificates to several national cricketers to take part in multiple franchise leagues after the upcoming white-ball series against Afghanistan got postponed.
Cricbuzz earlier reported that the BCB is not sure of Afghanistan series while it was also learnt that ACB officials communicated with their Bangladeshi counterparts on Thursday (June 27) to work out a new date for the series.
BCB, who had earlier announced that their all-format away series against Afghanistan in July has been rescheduled, was reluctant to play the series due to weather reports that suggested rain during that point of time in Greater Noida.
ACB was expected to host Bangladesh for two Tests along with three ODIs and three T20Is following the ICC T20 World Cup.
Later, the ACB prepared a new itinerary for BCB and according to that draft itinerary seen by Cricbuzz, three ODI’s and as many T20Is are scheduled to be played in Greater Noida between July 25 and August 6.
However, BCB provided NOC to several cricketers after both the boards agreed to reschedule the series.
“We were not ready to play the series against Afghanistan in July as according to weather reports there is rain during that point of time in Greater Noida,” Shahriar Nafees, in-charge, BCB’s cricket operations, told Cricbuzz on Thursday.
“After both boards agreed to reschedule the series at some other convenient time we decided to provide NOC to our cricketers after they applied for it,” he said.
“When they (cricketers) came to know that the white-ball series against Afghanistan will not be played in July they decided to apply for NOC to take part in different franchise-based T20 tournament,” he said.
“It is not a fact players were reluctant to perform national duty and play in the franchise leagues because we issued the NOC only yesterday (June 25),” he added.
Taskin Ahmed was picked by Colombo Strikers while Towhid Hridoy and Mustafizur Rahman were picked by Dambullah Sixers to feature in the Lanka Premier League, scheduled from July 1-21.
In the Global T20 Canada League, slated from July 25, Bangla Tigers Missisagua picked Shakib Al Hasan and Shoriful Islam while Mohammad Saifuddin and Rishad Hossain will feature for Montreal Tigers and Toronto Nationals respectively.
Shakib is also expected to feature in Major League Cricket for Los Angeles Knight Riders, scheduled from July 5.
Meanwhile, ACB official recently told Cricbuzz that they don’t have any other window to play the white-ball series apart from this July and also added that they would play the two Tests at some other time.
It is understood the rescheduling of the series also paved way for Afghan cricketers as well considering many national cricketers are expected to feature in different teams of LPL, Canada Global T20 League and MLC.