The National Cricket League (NCL), one of the major first class tournaments in the country is set to kick off on October 10 with the senior players taking part in the league as part of their preparation for the Test series in India.
Bangladesh’s two-match Test series in India is part of their World Test Championship game and therefore importance of the NCL is bigger than any other time in this season.
Senior players like – Tamim Iqbal, Mahmudullah Riyad, Mushfiqur Rahim is set to play first four rounds of the NCL. While Tamim will be available for the NCL after four years, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah Riyad played just one NCL match in 2017.
BCB CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury said the main target is to make the tournament competitive in this season and there was special emphasize on the fitness issue.
“The NCL will start on October 10. After the meeting with tournament committee regarding the NCL, we have taken this decision. We also talked about how we can make the tournament more attractive and competitive,” Chowdhury said here on Monday.
‘The national players are available at this moment. So they will play this time around, subject to their fitness,” he added.
The senior players, outside the national team, however protested the decision as the standard marking for Beep Test has been made 11 from 9. The players’ fitness test is determined by the Beep Test.
The CEO said that they will not make any compromise with the fitness issue since they are taking this seriously.
“It’s the standard of fitness test that we set. The selectors have been given the role to observe it. They will consider whether a player is fit or not. You know there is lot of discussion about players’ fitness. That’s why we have given huge importance on it,” he said.
A total of four venues -Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium, Fatullah, Sher-e- Bangla National Cricket Stadium, Mirpur, Shaheed Kamruzzaman Stadium, Rajshahi and Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium, Khulna – will host the matches of the NCL.
As usual, the NCL will be two-tier basis tournament where the top team of the bottom tier will be promoted to top tier and the bottom team of the top tier will be relegated to the bottom tier.
Nizamuddin Chowdhury said that the wicket will be the same as was used in
the last season.
“The players were satisfied with the wicket of the last season and so that
sort of wicket will be provided this time also.”
He also disclosed that the match fee will not be increased significantly.
“We’ll increase the match fee to some extent. After this season, we’ll
discuss in the board meeting whether we can increase the amount
significantly,” he concluded.
