The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is mulling to organize the upcoming Bangladesh Cricket League (BCL), the premier first class tournament of the country, on one-day format this year.
Even though the four franchisees of the tournament was keen to make it a T20 format, Khaled Mahmud Sujon, the BCB director and game development chairman said, since there is no one-day tournament ahead of the Dhaka Premier League (DPL), they are keen to make it a 50-over-affair.
He also informed that the BCL one-day tournament will be staged in December. It will be a single league format with the top two finishers on points qualifying for the final.
“BCL must be organized and we will not compromise on it. We will start the tournament by December 7-10. This time we are considering to organise it in one-day format," Mahmud said after a meeting on Thursday.
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“They (franchisees) wanted T20 format. We don't even have time to finish the double league tournament at this time. We have BPL also ahead.”
Before the Pakistan series in 2015, the BCL was organized in one-day format instead of four days. There was a lot of excitement in the four-team tournament. The champion was Islami Bank East Zone. Khaled Mahmood wants to make the tournament better from now on.
“Grounds department have been told to make good and bouncy wickets. We have to decide now which field to play or which field to leave empty in a bid to keep the grounds fresh," Mahmud, also the Team Director of Bangladesh national team said.
The BCL is being organized by dividing the eight divisions of the country into four zones. Walton Central Zone is formed with the players from Dhaka Division and Dhaka Metro. Islami Bank owns the eastern part of Sylhet and Chattogram divisions. South Zone is made with Barisal and Khulna divisions and North Zone is formed with Rangpur and Rajshahi divisions. Both South and North Zone are managed by the BCB.
Basically the BCB pick up the players for the BCL who put up good performance in the National Cricket League (NCL).