Shakib confirmed as T20I captain

Shakib Al Hasan has officially been appointed Bangladesh's new T20I captain, succeeding Mashrafe Mortaza who retired from the format in Sri Lanka last month. The decision was among several taken at the BCB's first board meeting of 2017.

"There were other names that we considered but Shakib's form and ability in T20s is outstanding so he was almost chosen by default," BCB president Nazmul Hassan said in Mirpur. Hassan had said earlier that Shakib was the leading candidate for the job.

Bangladesh had lost all four T20Is when Shakib was previously captain, between 2009 and 2010.

The BCB also approved the salary of Bangladesh's contracted players for 2017, raising the highest grade (A-plus) by 38% to be BDT 400,000 (USD 5000) per month. The four subsequent categories - A, B, C and D - got raises ranging from 25 to 33%. The development came after Bangladesh's players had asked for parity in payments, when compared to the rest of the teams.

The Bangladesh players' match fee was also increased, with a Test match yielding BDT 350,000 (USD 4375), an ODI BDT 200,000, and a T20I BDT 125,000. Fees in all three formats rose by a sizeable margin, with the ODI match fee going up by 50%; it used to be BDT 100,000 in 2016.

Hassan did not reveal the players who would be part of the BCB's contracted list in 2017. "We are slightly confused by our grading system of the players. They get more rating points by playing more matches but that sometimes isn't fair to players like Mustafizur Rahman, Mosaddek Hossain and Mehedi Hasan who also perform but haven't played many matches. So we will have a second look where we consider the players' performance as well as our rating system."