Hasibul Hossain Shanto added to BCB men's selection committee

The Bangladesh Cricket Board has undergone a variety of changes to its selection panel of both men's and women's senior teams. For the starters, Hasibul Hossain Shanto, a premier Bangladesh fast bowler of his time, as has been added to the selection committee, and will be working alongside Gazi Ashraf Hossain Lipu and Abdur Razzak.

The development has come to the fore following a thorough meeting by the BCB key personnel on Saturday, September 20 in order to bring about a streamlined addition to the men's selection committee, where the position for the third selector has been vacant since Hannan Sarkar's resignation back in February 2025, just ahead of the ICC Champions Trophy.

"Hasibul Hossain Shanto has been selected to fill the vacant position in the selection panel. From now on, he will work alongside Abdur Razzak and Gazi Ashraf Hossain Lipu. As you know, there are one or two others working as selectors elsewhere, but Shanto was brought in because he is more experienced. Having played at the top level for Bangladesh for a long time, he was the natural choice for the role," Iftekhar Rahman Mithu, BCB's media committee chairman, told after a directorial board meeting as quoted by The Daily Star.

Additionally, the board has also taken a historic decision to include a female selector, bringing in the former Bangladesh Women's skipper Salma Khatun to the women's selection committee. She will be working under the chief selector Sazzad Ahmed Shipon. This is the first time that a female appointment has been done within the Bangladesh cricketing circles.

"We had a short meeting where we made four to five key decisions. One of those was the appointment of Salma Khatun as the first-ever woman selector for our women's national team. I think this is a revolutionary decision by our president, as having someone like Salma involved will provide great support for women's cricket. This is the first time such an appointment has been made in Bangladesh," Mithu told of the newly-appointed women's selector.

Club ownership dispute to be resolved soon

The upcoming board of directors is also to be elected and the BCB has confirmed that the due date to file nominations for the various positions is on Monday, following which, an evening meeting will approve the new list of councillor voters. On the other hand, the dispute regarding ownership of a quartet of domestic clubs was also discussed in Saturday's meet, as confirmed by Mithu.

“There has also been an ongoing dispute regarding the ownership of four clubs. A one-member committee was supposed to make a decision on the matter today, but the committee has requested one more day to review the report thoroughly and will present its findings tomorrow. As you know, the deadline for councillor nominations remains open till the September 22. On that day, a board meeting has been scheduled at 6:30 pm, where the councillor voters' list will be approved,” he concluded.