New names, new structure

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is set to restructure its entire domestic calendar in an effort to improve the promotion, branding, and commercial appeal to its traditional T20, one-day and longer-format competitions, potentially under new identities, while retaining the National Cricket League (NCL) four-day competition as the country's premier first-class tournament, a BCB source confirmed to Daily Sun on Wednesday.

Apart from the restructuring, the BCB also plans to introduce a number of new tournaments to the domestic calendar, including a Rising Star competition for Under-23 cricketers and an Inter-University Cricket League.

The development came after BCB president Tamim Iqbal held a meeting with the tournament committee at the BCB premises on Wednesday.

“What we're doing is this—we're keeping our first-class cricket intact, exactly as it is. The first-class cricket, which is the four-day NCL, will remain as it is,” said a source about the proposed domestic calendar.

“As for the other programs—the Bangladesh Cricket League, one-day, four-day or T20, NCL—we're looking at how we can restructure them. We're working on a team ownership model. So we're working on that, trying to see how these competitions can be brought under one package programme. Let's see how far we can take it,” he added.

For the past two years, the BCB used to start its domestic season with the NCL T20 in late September before the traditional four-day competition in mid-October.

The Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) followed in the December-January window before the BCL was staged ahead of the Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League (DPL).

Under the proposed structure, the tournament committee plans to reduce the eight-team NCL T20 to a six-team competition while expanding the traditionally four-team zonal BCL one-day and longer-format tournaments to six teams.

“The names BCL and NCL T20 that exist now may become one unique name. All three events will have the same name—just the T20 version, the one-day version and the longer version. But all three names will change, or maybe be modified. Because our current NCL is our main NCL—that's first-class cricket. Basically, the T20 is an additional tournament, maybe played with eight teams,” he explained.

“Right now, it has no connection with first-class cricket. It's a separate programme. So we're looking at how to modify it and bring it under one unique identity, where maybe the number of participants changes a little, but that is then balanced out in the BCL. Maybe the BCL will have more teams. That's the idea. So we're working on this model now. Let's see how the ownership model progresses,” he added.

Meanwhile, the NCL four-day competition will remain unchanged with its eight divisional teams and continue to run alongside a three-day NCL Second XI competition during October and November.

The National Championship, the 50-over tournament involving 64 districts, will also be held during the same period at venues across the country, while the Inter-University tournament is expected to be staged during the BPL window to make use of venue availability.

The BCB is also aiming to stage the Rising Star Under-23 tournament in May, at the back end of the domestic season.