ZCZC
BSP-15
CRICKET-NCL-SENIOR-PLAYERS
Senior nat’l cricketers to play in NCL after 4 years
DHAKA, Sept 28, 2019 (BSS)- Country’s major first class cricket tournament,
National Cricket League (NCL) is set to get a huge boost as senior cricketers
like Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah Riyad will feature in the
upcoming edition, scheduled to begin from October 7.
Apart from Shakib Al Hasan and Liton Das, who are now playing the
Caribbean Premier League (CPL), all other national players are also set to
play the NCL, said Cricket Operations Chairman Akram Khan.
The NCL is dubbed as picnic league by many, but Akram said that the
presence of the national players would make the league more competitive.
“All of the national players are expected to play this NCL which will add
glamour and make it a more competitive one,” Akram said. “As we have a Test
series in India coming up, which is also part of the World Test Championship
game, the NCL is very important for the players to cope with the pressure of
five-day cricket.”
There was however recurring call for the national players to play the NCL
in a bid to motivate the young players. But somehow they couldn’t manage the
time or there was pressure of International cricket. In the wake of
Bangladesh’s disastrous performance against Afghanistan in one-off Test in
which they lost by 224-run, the call was reinforced further.
From what it was seen that senior players of Bangladesh often show one or
other excuses to skip NCL but according to team officials this year, they are
very keen to take part in the four-day competition to get accustomed to red-
ball cricket.
Tamim and Mahmudullah played in country’s top first-class tournament NCL
last time in 2015 when they represented Chattogram and Dhaka divisions
respectively while Mushfiqur Rahim played one match for Rajshahi division in
2017.
Although Mushfiqur and Mahmudullah played one and two matches respectively
in the franchise-based first-class competition Bangladesh Cricket League
(BCL) last year, their return to NCL was welcomed keeping the upcoming Test
series against India in mind.
BCB’s tournament committee decided that those who will play only in the
Test series in India will play in the first three rounds of NCL while the
members of the Twenty20 squad will play in the opening two rounds.
Bangladesh will visit India in November to play three Twenty20
international matches and two Tests, with the tour starting on November 3 in
Delhi with the first Twenty20 match.
BSS/SMP/ARS/1815 hrs