Many people have said it internally. Abahani head coach Khaled Mahmud Sujan, Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi coach Sohail Islam and Shinepukur coach Talha Zubair were also saying that the Super League could have been organized in T20 format instead of 50 overs at BKSP on the day of the title deciding match between Abahani and Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi clubs.
Because T20 World Cup is next month. If the Super League is in the T20 format, before the World Cup, the national team cricketers used to practice matches in this format. And it was not necessary to spend the whole day in the field in the scorching heat.
Shakib Al Hasan has officially said that. The country’s biggest cricket star said in the opening ceremony of a motorcycle show room of his one-time team mate cricketer Rubel Hossain that this year’s Premier Cricket Super League could have been done in 20 over format.
He also termed being on the field all day and playing 50-over league games in this scorching heatwave as ‘inhuman’. Also, the former captain questioned the effectiveness of the series against Zimbabwe at home before the World Cup and against them in the United States.
These questions naturally ran to BCB President Nazmul Hasan Papon, who came to the Dhaka Premier League title trophy ceremony on Monday afternoon.
Shakib was quoted as saying, ‘Can I suddenly convert Super League from List ‘A’ tournament to T20? Can it be done at will? I mean it’s not a chance.’
Explaining the BCB chief about the game against Zimbabwe now, ‘The second thing is to play with Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe’s FTP (Future Tour Program) is the first to do it. I don’t see it as preparation (for the World Cup).’
Papon added, ‘Shall I give them points in the game of FTP? It has nothing to do with that (World Cup). And we want to play in the United States to adapt to their conditions, wickets and everything.
BCB president said about World Cup preparations, ‘If you ask me, then I will say, we should have finished it earlier. If you talk about preparation, there is no preparation two weeks before. What to do, it was supposed to start already.’
Papon thinks that what happened before the team’s preparation. In his words, ‘I think, the number of series we play, this is the whole series with Sri Lanka, this time BPL is crowded, the game has been good. This is the preparation. This time the big thing about our team is experience, there is a fairly new and good combination. So there is nothing to do but hope for the best.’
ARB/MMR/MS
#preparation #weeks #advance