Bangladesh Cricket Board\u2019s (BCB) decision to roll out a record 28-player central contract for 2026 \u2014 its most expansive structure yet \u2014 was designed to provide financial security, squad depth and a broader safety net across formats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead, it has also sparked debate over grading criteria, perceived fairness and the message it sends to consistent performers within the national setup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the board left the top A+ category vacant and retained four cricketers in Grade A, several established names \u2014 including Mustafizur Rahman and Taijul Islam \u2014 were placed in Grade B, raising eyebrows in cricketing circles and prompting questions over the underlying evaluation framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Apart from that, Rishad Hossain, who is regularly playing white-ball format, also slotted in Grade B while Towhid Hridoy also found himself in the same category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among those publicly questioning the logic is former Bangladesh captain and BCB director Khaled Mahmud Sujon, who believes performance and format specialisation must be articulated more clearly if grading decisions are to be accepted by players and the wider cricket community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sujon did not hide his surprise over Mustafizur\u2019s placement in Grade B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMustafizur is a regular performer for Bangladesh in two white-ball formats. There is no doubt about that,\u201d he said. \u201cIn white-ball cricket, he is an A-plus player. Putting him in B grade \u2014 that raises questions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, Sujon also attempted to interpret what might have driven the board\u2019s thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMaybe the reason is that he does not play Tests. Maybe those who play all three formats were kept in A grade. It could be that simple,\u201d he said. \u201cIf that is the criteria, then it should be clearly explained.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He stressed that grading is not solely about the monthly salary figure but also about recognition and status within the team environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bangladesh Cricket Board\u2019s (BCB) decision to roll out a record 28-player central contract for 2026 \u2014 its most expansive structure yet \u2014 was designed to provide financial security, squad depth and a broader safety net across formats. Instead, it has also sparked debate over grading criteria, perceived fairness and the message it sends to consistent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.asifwp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.asifwp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.asifwp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.asifwp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.asifwp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6902"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.asifwp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6904,"href":"https:\/\/news.asifwp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6902\/revisions\/6904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.asifwp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.asifwp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.asifwp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.asifwp.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}