Though he had already hinted it earlier in a press conference, Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hasan Papon on Tuesday confirmed that Mahmudullah Riyad will captain Bangladesh team in the upcoming two-match Test series against Zimbabwe.
The BCB boss revealed that despite having a second choice in Mushfiqur Rahim, he eventually cast his vote of confidence for Mahmudullah to lead Bangladesh in Tests in absence of the regular leader Shakib Al Hasan, who is out with a finger injury.
According to Papon, BCB’s cricket operations committee was willing to make Mushfiqur captain again, but he vetoed the decision.
“There were two options – Mushfiqur [Rahim] and [Mahmudullah] Riyad. Mushfiqur wouldn’t have been a bad choice. They (the cricket operations committee) came to me with Mushfiqur’s name but what I told them was: ‘If you make Mushfiq captain, then you have to keep him as captain’,” he said.
“‘You will hand Mushfiqur captaincy for the Zimbabwe series and then if Shakib comes back for the West Indies series and says that he will play then what would happen? Will I tell Mushfiqur to give up captaincy again? That would have been an insult [to Mushfiqur] and I did not want to let that happen.
“Tell me to give Mushfiqur captaincy and I will say that in the board meeting. That is a different issue and if I am convinced then I will agree. But you will bring him and then relieve him of that duty” that can’t be done with Mushfiqur,” he added.
Meanwhile, Papon also revealed which he thought was the hardest decision for him to take in his tenure as the guardian of Bangladesh cricket, and it happened to be the decision to remove Mushfiqur from captaincy back in the year 2014.
