Former captain Habibul Bashar appointed as head of women's cricket by BCB

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) officially announced the appointment of former national team captain Habibul Bashar as the head of women's cricket on Tuesday, February 20. Bashar was a member of the national selection panel between 2016 to 2024 before it was dissolved recently.

Before this stint, the right-handed batter was a part of the women's national team selection panel. In a meeting headed by women's wing chairman, Nadel Chowdhury, at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka on Tuesday, the new responsibility was bestowed upon Bashar.

"We have discussed how to go forward in the coming days with women's cricket. I think it's a huge plus for the women's wing to have someone like Habibul Bashar as the head of the department. And, I think it's a big opportunity for him," Nadel told reporters in Dhaka on Tuesday as quoted by Cricbuzz.

"As an in-charge he will do the planning while David Moore (BCB program head) will do the corresponding with different boards as well as ICC, and under the leadership of Habibul the operations of the women's cricket will take place," he added.

Recent results of the women's team inspired me to take up the job: Habibul Bashar

Bashar, 51, revealed that the recent performances of the Bangladesh women's team inspired him to sign on the dotted lines and take up the role.

Last year, Bangladesh defeated India and South Africa for the first time in ODI cricket. The Bangla Tigers also managed to register monumental wins in the T20I format against India and South Africa. At the Asian Games, Bangladesh won the bronze medal after beating Pakistan by five wickets.

"There is a scope to work in this field. Certainly, the recent result of the women's team inspired me to take up the job," said Habibul, explaining that his priority lies in school cricket at the moment for girls.

"I think if we can have school cricket for women it will be a huge step forward considering nowadays only few women cricketers are playing the game. I would like to go to different schools and try to promote women's cricket and take others like current cricketers with me to help different school authorities understand the importance of women's cricket," he said.

Also, BCB is having discussions regarding the introduction of a franchise league for women. Bashar thinks that the league would help immensely in the development of the players.

"I would like to play as many matches as possible and if franchise-cricket takes place it will certainly be helpful but along the way we also need to put focus on women's cricket because here the focus is very limited. I think if the franchise cricket takes place the focus will increase on women's cricket. The more matches we play the better because it will create opportunities for everyone," he said adding that he is aiming to introduce scholarship for women's cricket.

"I am happy to have David with me and now will see we can have scholarship like the way we had for men's cricket when we send some cricketers outside the country for better training so that they can develop and perform and have many such plans like this," Bashar concluded.

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