The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) recently implemented a rule in which every domestic team must field atleast one leg-spinner in the playing eleven and even suspended head coaches of two teams for not following the ruling.

This came after Afghanistan defeated Bangladesh in the one-off Test match recently, thanks to their leg-spinners Rashid Khan and Zahir Khan wreaking havoc. Experts lamented Bangladeshi batsmen’s lack of practice against wrist spinners, given that there were no such bowlers in the national team.

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However, this ruling has not gone down well with the Test and T20I captain Shakib-Al-Hasan, who feels this rule will suppress the cricketers. He told the Bengali daily Samakal on Saturday (October 19), "For so many years we couldn't select a legspinner for the senior team, but suddenly we made plans to include seven legspinners in the BPL. This decision does come as a bit of a surprise, but I would still state that the board has taken a decision that it thinks is good. I think that legspinners should bowl a lot of overs in first-class cricket to gain confidence and consistency. The BPL is an international-standard competitive tournament where you will face scenarios that you are likely to face in international cricket. You share the dressing room with overseas cricketers. It is not the place to make a player."

Shakib also pointed out that the board should also take care of the cricketers and provide them with proper facilities to train and give a decent remuneration for their services.

"Only focusing on the national team shouldn't be the main job of the organizers. Places like Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna, and Sylhet should have a proper gym, running and indoor facilities. You cannot bat for more than 15 minutes in the Mirpur indoor facilities, because it gets so hot. They haven't installed ACs even after being told for ten years. It is quite disappointing, especially when we see indoors in other countries that have clear lighting and ACs. [First-class match fees] is very unacceptable," Shakib said.

"It is a very small amount for a cricketer to maintain the minimum standard of living in Bangladesh. Things are getting costlier. Government officers get increments every year, but we see that it is the same for us every time. It even gets reduced. BPL and DPL are big examples of this. I always get a feeling that cricketers in our country are being suppressed. This is not right. Everyone should have equal opportunity. A player should be left to earn what he feels he deserves. If the team doesn't want to take the player at that payment, the player will deal with it. But to stop him from [freely naming his price] is not right," he added.

(Cricbuzz/Samakal inputs)