The national selectors will sit tomorrow to pick the 15-member squad for the Twenty20 World Championship to be held in South Africa this September.
But in an aberration of standard practice, the new executive committee of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) will have its final word on the selection. Besides, the selectors will also not make the squad public, something that has been the case for the last four years.
Previously the board president only endorsed the selector's choice regarding the final squad.
Although it was not confirmed whether the ad-hoc committee have decided to get back to the old policy of overruling the selector's team if needed, confusion looms large since BCB's media committee chairman Ahmed Sajjadul Alam said: “Form now on the team will be finalized in the board meeting” after the first meeting last week.
"It's not clear to me because in our whole tenure, the president just endorsed the list. I hope it would be just a formality," said chief selector Faruque Ahmed, who got a month's extension to select the Twenty20 side and the academy team for this month's tour of Australia.
Chairman of cricket operations committee Gazi Ashraf Hossain Lipu however was also not ready to consider it a serious issue.
"I don't think it's a big issue. We go for executive committee approval because we want to work as a team. As a former player, I always love to see the selectors do their job without any interference. We will definitely change our guard if it hurt the sentiment of the selectors," said Lipu, also a former national skipper.
Faruque Ahmed-led selection panel will short-list the squad from the 30-member probables that they announced on July 11. The preliminary list has included thirteen uncapped players and the chief selector hinted that a good number of new faces are likely to win the national cap for the latest version of the competition.
"You know we have so far played only one international Twenty20 game and played some domestic matches last year. So, you can't consider some players as Twnety20 specialist. We have to focus on the national team players first and then go for other options," said Faruque.
"The last domestic Twnety20 performance would also be one of the criterions. It's a different type of game and no doubt young and multi-skill players are suitable for this kind of game," he added.
The fact is that not too many players in the probables shone in the Twnety20 competition in December last year. Left-handed opener Junaid Siddique however has a good chance to make it, as the big-hitter was the top scorer with 249 runs in six matches at the strike rate of 166.
Nadif Chowdhury and Nazmul Hossain Limon are the other players who have also impressed many by their big-hitting abilities.
Bangladesh vice-captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza missed the last two one-day matches in Sri Lanka because of his ankle injury while left-arm spinner Mohammad Rafique reportedly expressed his desire to skip the meet.
"Mashrafe will definitely be considered if he is fit. I don't know about Rafique's desire. We have yet to get any official word from the board the about Mashrafe's fitness and Rafique's desire," Faruque informed.
Bangladesh has been placed in Group A along with hosts South Africa and West Indies in the competition, starting from September 11.
The Tigers for the first time will go through a special conditioning camp next week in Sylhet under a unit of Bangladesh Army to warm up for the Twenty20 World Championship.
The six-day camp, under the 'Special Warfare Wing', will begin on August 11.