The executive committee of Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) continued with their one captain policy to put an end to Habibul Bashar's three-year stint. He had inherited the post from Khaled Mahmud in January 2004.

"After a lot of debate on the issue, board members decided to start a new era for Bangladesh cricket. Ashraful has been appointed as captain till the end of the Twenty20 World Cup (in September)," said BCB joint-secretary and media committee chairman Reazuddin Al Mamun during a break in the meeting.

In his instant reaction, an excited Ashraful, who made his one-day debut against Zimbabwe in 2001 and played his first Test against Sri Lanka in September the same year, said that there is a big challenge ahead of him.

"I must say Sumon bhai (Habibul Bashar) was the most successful captain of the country. His ability to lead the team both on and off the field with calmness along with coach Dav Whatmore has set a standard for the team, so I have to continue it. It's a big challenge but I am ready for it," said the right-hander, who got the news first through an SMS from Mamun.

"I know if I failed to deliver as a batsman then the captaincy wouldn't mean anything. So I have to lead the team from the front. The most important thing is that the demand in our cricket has increased day by day," he observed.

The 22-year-old Ashraful, who so far has played 35 Tests and 101 one-day internationals, said that Australia great Steve Waugh and New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming are his idols as captain.

"I like their captaincy because of their aggressiveness. I think there are a lot of things I have to learn as a skipper and I believe I will get support from my teammates and the former cricketers. I proved myself as a captain slightly in the domestic circuit but I am aware that it is a different task for me at the international level," said Ashraful.

Unfortunately it was not possible to get the reaction of Bashar about his successor as he is now in India on a personal visit.

The 22-year-old new captain will have his work cut out with his first assignment in Sri Lanka where he will lead the side in three Tests and as many one-day matches in the island nation over June-July.

Meanwhile, the board's national game development manager Shaun Williams will work as head coach and Sarwar Imran, who coached the national team to the historic inaugural Test match in 2000, is now the assistant coach.

The most debatable issue in the meeting was whether the board would go for separate captains, a concept which hardly proved right in previous experiments by the other countries.

It was learnt that most of the board members praised Bashar for his successful three-year stint as captain but they were not in favour of giving him another chance to lead the Test side because of his poor performance since the Zimbabwe tour.

The way 34-year-old Bashar handled the team during the recently concluded home series against India frustrated most of the members, especially with his decision to quit the one-day captaincy when they had expected a retirement announcement from Bashar, one of the finest batsmen in the country.

He led Bangladesh 69 times in ODIs to have won 29 matches and captained Bangladesh in 18 Tests where he achieved the only victory against Zimbabwe and drew four games.

Meanwhile, the board has decided to increase the salary of the contracted players by 20 per cent and for the first time, brought the A team and under-19 players under the board's payroll. A-team players will get fifty per cent of what the national members receive while under-19 players will receive twenty-five per cent.