Mashrafe decides not to play at three-team tournament

Former Bangladesh ODI captain Mashrafe Mortaza has decided not to play in a yet-to-be-named domestic three-team one-day competition that is scheduled to start from October 11.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has been planning to return to competitive cricket with domestic games after the Sri Lanka tour is postponed. Despite the postponement of the tour the members of the Bangladesh national team squad were in action at Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium as they divided themselves between two teams- Ryan Cook XI and Ottis Gibson XI-  to play the first two-day practice match that ended on Saturday.

There will be two more inter-team matches. It was to be followed by a three-day warm-up match. But instead, the BCB has planned an ODI competition for the three teams where Bangladesh National Cricket Team, Bangladesh ‘A’ Team and Hyper Performance Team (HP) will take part.

The selectors had hoped to get Mashrafe for those matches. When asked about the match, Mashrafe refused to play citing fitness issue. Mashrafe had been tested Covid-19 positive earlier and It took him more than two weeks to recover.

Mashrafe stepped down from the leadership role at the end of the three-match ODI series against Zimbabwe at home and did not take part in any form of competitive cricket since March. Even though the rest of his comrades returned to personal practice, he did not take part in any kind of practice either.