All countries of the world have franchise T20 cricket leagues. But the most crowded league is the Indian Premier League (IPL). Every player dreams of playing in IPL. A few days ago the mega auction was held for the upcoming event. But although 12 Bangladeshi cricketers were shortlisted for the auction, none got the team. From Shakib Al Hasan, Mostafizur Rahman to Liton Das, Taskin Ahmed or Rishad Hossain, there was no chance. The issue is bothering cricket analyst and current board director Nazmul Abedin Fahim.
Fahim spoke to the media at Mirpur Sher Bangla Stadium on Wednesday. Expressing disappointment, he said, 'Personally, I am sorry, but I judge our standard fairly. If I get a place on the stage of the world, it means that my condition is good.'
According to Fahim, I have to take a chance in the IPL by qualification, 'If I don't get a place on the world stage, it means that my condition is not good. By force but… I say in this country, I say in that country, I say this franchise, I can't enter that franchise in the league. If you are qualified, you can enter.'
After the start of international career of Mostafiz, he was in all the IPL events. Shakib was all but a couple. Liton Das played a season ago. But no one had a chance this time. Taskin got several chances but BCB did not let him play. This happened to Rishad too. Referring to the issue, Fahim said, 'There was an opportunity for us, last year or the year before that some pace bowlers were available or opportunities were created. We could not use it. I think we should try to exploit these international opportunities.'
But in all the countries of the world, if any cricketer gets a chance in IPL, the respective board releases them. Only in Bangladesh, even after getting a team, cricketers do not get that opportunity. IPL has played a key role in raising the standard of cricketers in Afghanistan. Several cricketers of the team get the opportunity to play IPL regularly.
Referring to Afghanistan, Fahim said, 'Afghanistan is a very good example for us, Afghanistan only did this but gradually brought their players to this place. Slowly their number of players is increasing in this place, we are lagging behind. We should use this space. We will try that in the near future.'
