Senior cricketers to play in NCL after 4 years

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.