The decision was taken at the board's executive committee meeting, headed by president Ali Asghar, at a local hotel yesterday.

All-rounders Sakib and Forhad made their debuts in the recent tour of Zimbabwe and Kenya while batsman Mehrab was picked in the national side for next month's ICC Champions Trophy in India.

Now the number of contracts to the national cricketers have risen to twenty-three as the board refrained from axing any of the existing players.

The three new boys join batsman Shahriar Nafees, pacemen Syed Rasel, Kazi Shahadat Hossain, left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak Raj, and wicket-keeper Mushfiqur Rahim who are also in the rookie contract list.

The committee also decided to extend the players' contract, which was due to expire on September 30 this year, by six to twelve months. It was also decided to increase all players' salaries by 15 per cent.

BCB also agreed, in principle, to form a Benevolent Trust Fund to help cricketers, umpires and scorers associated to cricket.

The trust would start functioning with an initial deposit of one crore Taka.