Shakib Al Hasan lashed out against the rule of compulsorily bowling legspinners for four overs in the Bangladesh Premier League, saying the T20 competition was a platform to familiarise domestic players with international cricket scenarios, rather than wanting to make a player there.

This comes after the Bangladesh Cricket Board issued a mandate of having a lesgpinner and an overseas pacer who bowls over 140 kmph in every game in the T20 tournament. It had even dismissed two team coaches for having failed to feature legspinners in their respective playing XIs in the National Cricket League.

“For so many years we couldn’t select a legspinner for the senior team, but suddenly we made plans to include seven legspinners in the BPL,” Shakib told a Bengali daily on Saturday.

“This decision does come as a bit of a surprise, but I would still state that the board has taken a decision that it thinks is good. I think that legspinners should bowl a lot of overs in first-class cricket to gain confidence and consistency. The BPL is an international-standard competitive tournament where you will face scenarios that you are likely to face in international cricket. You share the dressing room with overseas cricketers. It is not the place to make a player.”

The decision of including the two kinds of bowlers was made with a view to tackle the national team’s batsmen’s struggle against the two. But Shakib said, there’s more to focus on that just that aspect. Particularly, facilities made available to the players for training, as well as decent remuneration.

“Only focusing on the national team shouldn’t be the main job of the organisers. Places like Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna and Sylhet should have a proper gym, running and indoor facilities. You cannot bat for more than 15 minutes in the Mirpur indoor facilities, because it gets so hot. They haven’t installed ACs even after being told for ten years. It is quite disappointing, especially when we see indoors in other countries that have clear lighting and ACs.

“[First-class match fees] is very unacceptable,” Shakib said. “It is a very small amount for a cricketer to maintain the minimum standard of living in Bangladesh. Things are getting costlier. Government officers get increments every year, but we see that it is same for us every time. It even gets reduced. BPL and DPL are big examples of this.

“I always get a feeling that cricketers in our country are being suppressed. This is not right. Everyone should have equal opportunity. A player should be left to earn what he feels he deserves. If the team doesn’t want to take the player at that payment, the player will deal with it. But to stop him from [freely naming his price] is not right,” he added.