DHAKA // The Bangaldesh batsman Nazim Uddin has become the seventh player to apply for early retirement from international cricket. The former captain Habibul Bashar, batsmen Shahriar Nafees and Aftab Ahmed, all-rounder Farhad Reza, wicketkeeper Dhiman Ghosh and left-arm spinner Mosharraf Hossain requested early retirement on Sunday without giving a reason. Local media reports said at least 14 leading Bangladesh cricketers were about to join the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL) Twenty20 competition. The new ICL season will start on Oct 10, featuring 34 matches in four venues.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board convened a meeting of its executive committee tomorrow after the original six players summoned to attend the cricket operations committee failed to respond. "We will decide appropriate actions against them as they breached contracts by disobeying the summons," Gazi Ashraf Hossain, the committee chairman, said. The Dhaka-based Bengali national daily Prothom Alo said Mohammad Rafique, Alok Kapali, Manjurul Islam, Tapash Baishya, Mohammad Sharif, Mahbubul Karim and Golam Mabud were also planning to join the ICL.
The newspaper said the Bangladeshi players would all be in the same team, named the Dhaka Warriors. The Bangladesh Cricket Players Association urged the players today to withdraw their petitions for retirement for the sake of the national cricket. "Change your decision and come back to uphold cricket and the country's image," the former Bangladesh captain Aminul Islam, a leader of the association, told a news conference.
Basher, Bangladesh's most successful captain, said on Sunday he had been in discussions with the ICL but had not yet signed a contract. *Reuters
