Mashrafe Mortaza praises Test pay rises and brushes off retirement speculation ahead of new BCB contracts

The 36-year-old has not played red-ball cricket for his country since 2009 but believes impending changes will encourage Test players

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Bangladesh stalwart Mashrafe Mortaza has praised his country's board for an impending restructure of the central contract system that is set to hand Test players a significant pay rise.

Mortaza, who most recently played Test cricket against the West Indies in July 2009, has focused on white-ball formats both domestically and internationally in recent years in order to manage his workload.

However, after a meeting of the board on Sunday saw agreement to raise the salaries of the team's international players for the first time in three years, as well as to follow the lead of England, Australia, South Africa and the West Indies in offering distinct contracts for red-ball and white-ball cricket, the 36-year-old told media that he believes the new system will help players' perceptions of the long-form game.

"I think [the pay rise] is a really good decision but the better decision was to do the split between red-ball and white-ball players," Mortaza was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

"Those who are playing all three formats should get more salary than the ones who play [just] one or two formats.

"Even [so], the salary should be better for those who give more emphasis to Tests. It might change our scenario of Test cricket.

"It will certainly raise the players' spirit, giving them more incentive to play Tests."

^{Mortaza had previously suggested he would not pick himself on the strength of his World Cup performances in 2019}

Mortaza has also commented on further speculation about his future with the team, having retired from international T20 cricket in 2017, become an elected member of the Bangladeshi parliament in 2018, and not played any international matches since the side he captained was eliminated from the World Cup in July last year.

While the board is expected to announce its final list of contracted players for 2020 later this week, the veteran seamer does not expect to feature having requested his own removal after an offer of an unprecedented farewell match from BCB president Nazmul Hassan.

After the conclusion of his Dhaka Platoon side's involvement in the Bangladesh Premier League, Mortaza told a press conference that he sees no need for special treatment, though he stopped short of clearly calling it a day.

"Until yesterday, I was a centrally-contracted cricketer with the board but not anymore," Mortaza added.

"I always believe the BCB is the cricketers' guardian. I never took pride in going against them.

"I have always said that a cricketer's entire career isn't only about playing for the national team. I think I have the freedom to play as long as I want.

"I thank the BCB for considering giving me a proper send-off, but I don't have much interest in it."

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