BCL kicks off today
The seventh edition of the franchise-based Bangladesh Cricket League (BCL) will kick-off today.
In the first round, defending champions Prime Bank South Zone will take on Walton Central Zone at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium while Islami Bank East Zone will face BCB North Zone at the Shaheed Kamruzzaman Stadium in Rajshahi.
The tournament returned to the double-league format after the last three editions were played in the single-league system. The intention is to provide more opportunities for players to adapt to the longer version of the game.
The players' draft was held on November 17, where each team formed their squads with 20 cricketers.
The previous edition saw run-fests with four double hundreds being struck while Liton Das finished as the highest run-getter with 779 runs from six games.
However, after both Bangladesh head coach Steve Rhodes and bowling coach Courtney Walsh emphasised the need to provide more opportunities to seamers in domestic first-class competitions, it is expected that the pacers may get some help from the wickets this time around.
Veteran left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak finished as the leading wicket-taker with 43 scalps in the previous edition while Abu Jayed's 18 scalps were the most taken by a seamer as the pitches tended to favour spinners and did not give pacers much to cheer about.
There were even talks of grooming leg-spinners from the domestic first-class circuit but interestingly Juabir Hossain, who notched a five-wicket haul in the National Cricket League last season, was not picked by any team in the BCL players' draft.
The focus from the organisers will be to make this first-class competition more meaningful in order to get the maximum benefit from the BCL this season.
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