Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) handed national contracts to fourteen players for the period of January 1 to December 31 this year.

Opener Imrul Kayes, pacer Shafiul Islam, left-arm spinner Taijul Islam, pacer Al-Amin Hossain and left-arm spinner Arafat Sunny were the new inclusions beside Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Tamim Iqbal, Mahmudullah Riyad, Rubel Hossain, Nasir Hossain, Anamul Haque and Mominul Haque.

Veteran left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak, off-spinner Shohag Gazi and pacer Robiul Islam were dropped from the previous list.

Mashrafe, Shakib, Mushfiqur and Tamim have been drafted in Grade A+, while Riyad was given Grade A, Rubel, Nasir and Imrul got Grade B, Anamul, Mominul and Shafiul have received Grade C and Grade D included Taijul, Al-Amin and Arafat.

The players' new contract was approved during the meeting of the BCB board of directors at a local hotel yesterday and this time there was no increase in salaries.

NO EXTRA PLAYERS

The board has decided not to send any extra players to Australia with the 15-member World Cup squad.

CHANGES TO STANDING COMMITTEES

The long-pending changes to a number of standing committees have finally been made. The most significant change to the important cricket operations committee occurred as former national skipper Akram Khan was removed as chairman of this committee. He will be replaced by another former national skipper Naimur Rahman.

"It was a commitment of the board president that he would review the performance of the committee and accordingly he made these changes. The main objective of these changes is to make the activities more vibrant," said BCB's media committee chairman Jalal Yunus.

The new chairmen of different committees are: Enayet Hossain Siraj (working committee), Naimur Rahman (cricket operations committee), Akram Khan (tournament committee), Tanjil Chowdhury (age-group tournament committee), Hanif Bhuiyan (grounds committee), Lokman Hossain Bhuiyan (facilities management committee), Shafiul Alam Chowdhury Nadel (medical committee), Showkat Aziz Russell (audit committee) and Gazi Golam Murtoza (CCDM).

HIGH PERFORMANCE COMMITTEE

Mahbub Anam has been made chairman and AZM Nasir vice-chairman of this committee, which will look after the High Performance Unit. "This committee will actually run the High Performance Unit which will be revived soon. We need this unit properly run because of healthy back-up line-ups," said Yunus.

TECHNICAL COMMITTEE

A technical committee has been formed with six former cricketers in Jahangir Shah Badshah, Athar Ali Khan, ASM Faruque, Ishtiaque Ahmed, Mainul Haque and Shafique-ul Huque Heera. The name of the convenor will be announced later.

"This committee will give their observations to the board on different activities, share their ideas and give suggestions. Our expectation is that they will follow the contemporary cricket to enrich the game in our country," said Yunus.

TEAM MANAGER FOR ICC WORLD CUP

BCB director and former national skipper Khaled Mahmud has been appointed team manager at the ICC Cricket World Cup.