Photo : Collected

CHATTOGRAM, Jan 16, 2025 (BSS) - Rangpur Riders’ assistant coach Mohammad Ashraful dubbed the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League as grand tournament saying local players are showing very impressive performance.  

“This year, BPL is getting new look because of dominant performance of local players, something which has never seen before in the tournament’s history,”  he made the comments while talking to BSS today.

“The local players played a key role in making this BPL a successful story this time. We have never used to see such a dominant performance from local players in the past tournaments,” Ashraful added.

“The standard of the tournament is now quite high regardless of some hiccup. But what BCB has done to give it look new look is really praiseworthy. They have made good wicket and it is actually sporting wicket where both bowlers and batters can enjoy good run.”

Although there was criticism for shorter boundaries, specially in Sylhet phase of BPL, Ashraful, considered as the first poster boy of Bangladesh cricket said, the boundary doesn’t matter if wicket stays good.

“It’s not that only the shorter boundaries did the trick. When you said that shorter boundaries help the players hit more sixes, I will differ it. If the wicket remains bad, you can’t hit sixes at will even in shorter boundaries,” he said, adding that if the wicket stays good, the players can hit sixes even in a ground with longer boundaries.

“What matters most is how the wicket plays. This time the BCB prepared good wicket, which will give you an opportunity to hone the art of scoring quickly, specially in T20 format. It’s a format where our performance always takes a nosedive.”

“We are always criticized of not producing enough power hitters who can hit sixes at will. But when you will prepare a good wicket, automatically you will get enough power hitter,” said Ashraful, who still holds the record of the youngest Test centurion.

Ashraful said NCL T20, which was held before the BPL, played a vital role in instilling confidence into the players that they can compete with foreign players in hitting sixes effortlessly.

“The BCB held NCL T20 before the BPL, only for the local players. Earlier we didn’t have any other T20 tournament, sans BPL. From what we have seen that the overseas players ruled the rooster in BPL because of their ability to hit sixes and also the franchises relied heavily on them during the crunch moment,” he remarked.

“But the NCL T20 changed that mindset of the franchise owners. Through NCL T20, the local players showed that they can also play crucial role in crunch moment if they are given the chance,” he said, citing the example of Nurul Hasan Sohan.

“We won a match by chasing 26 runs in the last over, thanks to our Rangpur Riders captain Nurul Hasan Sohan. He came down heavily on Kyle Mayers in the last over to score 30 runs and gave us the victory.
Mayers is an experienced player and the way Nurul went after him, it’s the testament of the changed approach toward the game.”

Ashraful said Nurul’s pyrotechnique was the evidence of Bangladesh players’ immense improvement in this format.

“I think Bangladesh will no longer be a vulnerable side in T20 format after this BPL. The way players came into their business in this tournament gave a glimmer of a good future. In the past we would suffer mental breakdown when asking run rate climbed up while chasing a target. This time I saw players remain fearless in their approach and no target is safe in this BPL,” Ashraful added.

The country wide Youth Festival kicked off with this BPL to build a new Bangladesh after the July uprising that led to the ouster of the autocratic Awami League government.

Ashraful said the crowd presence in the BPL is heavily encouraging.

“The youth came in abundance in the stadium. It’s no secret that the fans are our main strength. When youth people will involve more in sports, they will be creative and that will keep them away from any negative activities. So in this sense, BPL is a good platform to involve more youth in cricket and thereby build a new country,” he added.