Gazi Ashraf Hossain Lipu replaces Minhajul Abedin Nannu as Bangladesh's Chief Selector

Gazi Ashraf Hossain Lipu has been made the Bangladesh national cricket team's Chief Selector.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) made the announcement to the media after the 9th BCB Board of Directors meeting on Monday.

BCB President Nazmul Hassan Papon spoke with the media at Mirpur's Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium and made the announcement.

Papon also added that Hannan Sarkar and Abdur Razzak have been added as national team selectors alongside chief selector Lipu. 

Minhazul Abedin Nannu who was the previous Chief Selector and Habibul Bashar who was a national team selector did not have their contracts extended in their current roles after it ended on 31 December but they will be in the BCB in some other capacity and role as they are "too valuable to lose", the BCB chief explained. 

Razzaq was the only member of the previous selection committee that had his contract extended.

"Lipu was the best candidate available and it was a matter of seeing if he was interested in the post. Once we saw that he was, it was just a matter of making things official," Papon explained. 

Former all-rounder Lipu was the captain of Bangladesh's first international match. He played 7 ODIs for Bangladesh from the 1986 Asia Cup to 1990. Lipu was also successful in domestic cricket. He was especially valued for his leadership qualities. Later, Lipu became the director of BCB, he also served as the head of the cricket management department.

Nannu had been serving as a selector since 2011 and in June 2016, the former captain was made the chief selector. There had been no change in the post since then. Habibul Bashar was also a selector since 2011. In 2021, Razzak got a place in the selection committee. After a long time, changes were finally made in the selection committee.

Other issues discussed in the meeting were the matter of Tamim Iqbal and his future along with Bangladesh's disastrous ODI World Cup performance report.

"I will see the World Cup performance report and then make a decision based on it and it won't take much time to do."

There will also be two new assistant batting and bowling coaches and their names will be announced soon. 

Mahmudullah Riyad, on the back of a good ODI World Cup showing, has been added to the list of 21 players who have been offered central contracts though the full list hasn't been revealed yet. 

In the new central contracts, match fees and bonuses have increased for players though their base salaries remain the same.