Salma breaks new ground as selector

Former Bangladesh skipper Salma Khatun has called time on a trailblazing career as a cricketer and is set to embark on a brand new challenge as the first-ever female selector of the national women's team.

The 34-year-old confirmed the development to The Daily Star on Saturday, adding that the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Aminul Islam Bulbul and women's wing chairman Nazmul Abedeen Fahim informed her after the board of directors meeting.

Salma is expected to join Sazzad Ahmed Shipon in the two-person selection panel and begin her duties on October 1.

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"I will no longer play. I have already informed it," Salma said, adding that she will try to uphold fairness as selector.

"There will be competition and obstacles in every job. Amidst all of it, I will try my best to remain fair. Can't guarantee that I won't make any mistakes, but I will always try to ensure that everything happens in a fair manner," she added.

Salma, who last featured for Mohammedan Sporting Club in this year's Women's Dhaka Premier League and finished as the second highest wicket-taker with 18 scalps, is a key figure in the country's women's cricket.

She had led the Tigresses in both their inaugural WODI and WT20I matches in 2011 and 2012 respectively. The all-rounder represented Bangladesh in 46 WODIs and 95 WT20Is and scored over 1000 runs and picked up 136 wickets across formats.

She lost her place in the WODI side in 2022 after the New Zealand tour and last played a WT20I against India in Mirpur in 2023.

BCB's media committee chairman Iftekhar Rahman Mithu termed Salma's appointment as "revolutionary".

"I think this is a revolutionary decision by our president, as having someone like Salma involved will provide great support for women's cricket," Mithu told reporters in Mirpur after the board of directors meeting.

Meanwhile, the BCB also appointed former Bangladesh pacer Hasibul Hossain Shanto in the men's team's selection panel. Shanto will join as the third selector alongside in the current two-member selection panel led by Gazi Ashraf Hossain Lipu and Abdur Razzak.

The position of the third selector went vacant in February after selector Hannan Sarkar stepped down from his role to focus on his coaching career. Hasibul previously worked as the age-level selector at the BCB since 2016.

"At age-level, you have to predict how good a player can become in the future, if you make a wrong judgement there, you could miss out on a good player. At the senior level, you have ready players and have to pick out of them," Hasibul told The Daily Star.

"Lipu bhai is here, Raj is also here, by communicating with them, I hope I will be able to do well inshallah," he added.