New Delhi, Aug 31 (IANS): Former chief selector Chetan Sharma hailed BCCI's decision to make domestic cricket mandatory for each player.

The Board of Central Cricket of India (BCCI) has put a major emphasis on the senior Indian cricket players taking part in the storied Duleep Trophy, a tournament which has been on the Indian domestic calendar since 1961/62. The tournament is set to begin on September 5 in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh and M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.

“It is a great decision by the BCCI, our job is to play cricket and we should not refuse to play cricket anywhere and to get the opportunity to play competitively is ideal. BCCI’s decision to host all Duleep trophy games at one venue is a great decision, we will have India’s best 50-60 players in one place,” Chetan Sharma told IANS.

Originally a zonal competition with teams representing six zones - North, South, East, West, Central, and North-East - the Duleep Trophy will feature only four teams this time. As the second round coincides with the home Test series against Bangladesh starting on September 19, players selected for the Test series will be replaced in the Duleep Trophy.

Bangladesh are coming off a historic win against Pakistan in the first test of the two game series which was the first Bangladesh Test victory over Pakistan.The Tigers not only registered a first ever victory against Pakistan, they did it in emphatic fashion with a 10 wicket victory at Rawalpindi.

Chetan went on to state that there are no easy matches and India should aim to register dominant victories against Bangladesh.

“International cricket is never easy, may it be any opponent and you always have to be serious. India will be preparing differently for Bangladesh and Australia in different manners. We are also in the middle of the World Test Championship so we have to make sure we register emphatic victories over Bangladesh,” he added.