Mashrafe Mortaza is new Bangladesh captain by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Player:

Mashrafe Mortaza, Mohammad Ashraful, Shakib Al Hasan

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DateLine: 23rd June 2009

 

Bangladesh Cricket Board has handed over the captaincy of the team to Mashrafe Mortaza for the forthcoming tours of West Indies and Zimbabwe. BCB has decided to relieve Mohammad Ashraful of his captaincy duties to allow him to focus on his batting.

 

Shakib Al Hasan, the world's No.1 all-rounder in ODIs, has been named the vice-captain.

 

"The board wants to sincerely thank Mohammad Ashraful for his contribution as skipper," Mohammed Jalal Yunus, the BCB's Media & Communications Committee Chairman, said. "The decision to replace him was taken with the intention of relieving the load on Ashraful so that he can play his natural game.

 

"We all know his quality and what he is capable of as a batsman and we are confident that without the burden of captaincy his batting would flourish and he would contribute more to the team."

 

Bangladesh faced plenty of flak on returning home from the ICC World Twenty20 in England where they failed to qualify for the Super Eights.

 

The under-fire Ashraful had insisted he had no plans of quitting the captaincy. The tour of West Indies begins on July 3 with a three-day match against West Indies A. The team will play two Tests, three ODIs and a Twenty20.