The Bang-ladesh Cric-ket Board has decided to issue just two No Objection Certificates per year to its contracted players to play in overseas leagues, Nizamuddin Chowdhury, the chief executive officer, confirmed on Monday.The decision has already been implemented and the players will now be forced to choose between the overseas leagues they want to play in.
"It is a principled, policy decision of the board," Chowdhury said. "We will allow two NOCs per year. It will be on a case-by-case basis and it is with immediate effect. We want to give them enough rest and manage their injuries.
We want to ensure all our players are available for international matches."While the move isn't likely to affect a lot of players, it'll surely affect Shakib al Hasan. The all-rounder is a crucial part of teams in the Indian Premier League, Caribbean Premier League, Pakistan Super League and the Big Bash League.
Debbabrata Paul, the secretary of the Cricketers Welfare Association of Bangladesh, disagreed with the BCB's decision. "This cannot happen and this doesn't happen anywhere in the world. It is being forced on the players. They are simply being deprived," Paul said. "We were not informed about it. We will definitely have to talk about it with the players."
Chowdhury did not specify what triggered this decision, but ESPNcricinfo understood it had to do with Bangladesh's disastrous tour of South Africa. The move would mostly affect Shakib Al Hasan, Bangladesh's busiest cricketer, who has been playing the IPL, BBL, PSL and CPL for several years.
The likes of Tamim Iqbal, Mustafizur Rahman and Mahmudullah had also started to feature in T20 leagues other than the IPL. Tamim, Shakib and Mustafizur were picked to play in a T10 competition next month. The contacted Bangladesh players, however, did not wish to comment. It was learned that the BCB had recently restricted national players from talking to the media about certain issues.