Mahmudullah, Mustafizur Rahman given white-ball-only contracts

Following their axing from the Bangladesh Test side, Mahmudullah and Mustafizur Rahman have been included only in the white-ball players’ list in the latest BCB central contracts (Jan to Dec 2020), which for the first time have players separated according to formats. Mashrafe Mortaza, who has stepped down as ODI captain – but hasn’t announced his retirement as a player – and Shakib Al Hasan, who is serving a one-year ICC ban, have not been included in the contracts.

Apart from Mahmudullah and Rahman, three others were given white-ball-only contracts: Mohammad Saifuddin and newcomers Afif Hossain and Mohammad Naim.

Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim, Liton Das, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Mohammad Mithun, Taijul Islam and Mehidy Hasan earned themselves full contracts, for red- and white-ball cricket, while Mominul Haque, Nayeem Hasan, Abu Jayed and Ebadot Hossain got red-ball-only contracts.

As such, players will be further divided according to categories – A, B, C and D – but the BCB hasn’t furnished the details of that yet. Players in Category A stand to earn a little over BDT 600,000 (US$ 7500 approx.) per month, while the players in Category D will get BDT 100,000 (US$ 1250 approx.) per month, with B and C players figuring in between.

As reported by ESPNcricinfo, the BCB has raised match fees for all three formats earlier this year. A Test match appearance will now fetch a player BDT 600,000 (US$ 7500 approx.), a jump from BDT 350,000 (US$ 4375 approx.) from 2017 to 2019. For playing an ODI and T20I they will now get BDT 300,000 (US$ 3750 approx.) and BDT 200,000 (US$ 2500 approx.) respectively.

Apart from Mortaza, who had requested the BCB to leave him out of the contracts, and Shakib, five others don’t figure in the list: Imrul Kayes, Abu Hider Rony, Syed Khaled Ahmed, Rubel Hossain and Shadman Islam.