BCL deferral leads to NCL

The country's premier four-day cricket competition, the Bangladesh Cricket League (BCL), which was scheduled to begin on September 20, has been postponed since one of the franchises' sponsors pulled out and another raised concerns regarding to the scheduling of the competition.

The league has now been replaced by the National Cricket League, another first-class cricket competition, which will begin on September 25. While the NCL is the country's oldest four-day competition and is played between the seven divisions of the country, it is not as competitive as the BCL. The top 80 players of the NCL are divided into four zones and are selected to take part in the BCL. Also, players are paid substantially more to play in the BCL.

The postponement is likely to serve as a blow for the national players who were supposed to take part in the first two rounds of the BCL in order to prepare for the England Test series which begins in October. While the change in schedule is not only expected to bring a fall in the level of competition, the fact that the league is set to start five days later is also expected to further affect the preparation of the national cricketers ahead of the England series.

Prime Bank was the first sponsor to raise a concern. They also pulled out of the league. They run the Prime Bank South Zone team. That was followed by Walton raising certain issues as well. Walton runs the Walton Central Zone team.

Both teams were not happy about the fact that the top players would not be available in the league. With the Afghanistan and England series due in September and October, almost none of the national players will be free to take part in the BCL.

As a result, the franchises complained that the league would not be getting enough publicity and so will not be worth their investment. They therefore requested the BCB to host the league at some other time.

Speaking on the issue, BCB director Akram Khan said: “We wanted to start the BCL ahead of the England series so that our players can get enough practice. But the corporate companies want some exposure through the BCL as well. They are paying a lot for these teams. So we decided to postpone the BCL going by their concerns. We will try to give our players as much exposure as we can through the NCL before the England series.”

Akram further said that former national player Mohammad Ashraful who has served his suspension will be available to take part in the National Cricket League.

Ashraful, who has been training at Mirpur in the last few weeks, is eligible to play domestic cricket after having served his suspension.