Shakib blasts BPL leg-spinner rule

Shakib Al Hasan has slammed the decision to make it mandatory for each team in the upcoming Bangladesh Premier League to field a leg-spinner. The Bangladesh Cricket Board have made the ruling as they try to encourage the growth of wrist-spin in the country ahead of next year’s Twenty20 World Cup. Not only must each team include a leg-spinner in their squad but there must be one in the starting XI – a decision that Bangladesh’s Test and T20 skipper feels is an over-reaction and shows his nation in a bad light. “For so many years we couldn’t select a leg-spinner for the senior team, but suddenly we made plans to include seven leg-spinners in the BPL,” said Shakib. “The BPL is an international-standard competitive tournament where you will face scenarios that you are likely to face in international cricket.” The BPL runs from December 6 this year to January 11 2020 and the world’s leading all-rounder believes that the decision will bring down the standards despite the presence of foreign stars. “You share the dressing room with overseas cricketers. It is not the place to make a player,” he added.