Bangladesh Cricket Board in an open warning has asked its players to improve their game by axing six players from the national central contracts on Thursday (19 April) for their poor performances in the last calendar year.

The six axed players are – Soumya Sarkar, Imrul Kayes, Mosaddek Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Taskin Ahmed and Kamrul Islam Rabbi. However, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has decided to retain only 10 players on the national contract, with three others to be added at a later time.

On the other hand, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mashrafe Mortaza, Tamim Iqbal, Mahmudullah Riyad, Mominul Haque, Rubel Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Taijul Islam and Mehedi Hasan –are the 10 players, who have been awarded contracts by the BCB.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s selector Habibul Bashar told AFP, “For contracts, we mostly preferred players who would perform regularly over the next one year. Some players have lost their regular spot in the team. They needed to be sent a message. Getting dropped does not mean the door is closed for them. Everyone will get a fair chance in future.”

It is learned that the BCB President Nazmul Hassan has said that the contracted players would not be given a pay rise this year with the top paid players are –Shakib, Mushfiqur, and Mortaza, who were getting 420,000 taka ($5,121) per month from the national board.

BCB president Nazmul Hassan said, "We have reduced the number of contracted players because the cricket operations and selectors think that their performances have not been up to a level that makes a compelling case for them to be included in the contracts." 

He signed off by saying, “Ten names have been finalized among the national players and we also determined that three rookies be included."

The board has also great news for Bangladesh’s domestic cricketers, as they are thinking about reviewing the contracts for around 80 first-class players this year.

In the last year 2017, Bangladesh lost Test series against New Zealand, India, and South Africa and only managed to draw against Sri Lanka and Australia, while they only managed to won four One Day Internationals in their 14 played ODIs during the period.

On the other hand, the Tigers’ Twenty20 internationals record was also depressing, as they only managed to won just one of seven T20Is over the same year.