The Bangladesh Cricket League one-dayers is all set to begin today. The Bangladesh Cricket Board introduced the tournament with four BCL franchises in order to facilitate the national side’s preparations for the forthcoming bilateral home series against Pakistan.
In the opener at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, Prime Bank South Zone will lock horns with Islami Bank East Zone while BCB North Zone will encounter Walton Central Zone at Fatullah. Both the matches will begin at 1:30pm.
Bangladesh ODI skipper Mashrafe bin Mortaza, who will lead Prime Bank South Zone, believes the week-long tournament will provide the national cricketers valuable match-practice ahead of the Pakistan ODIs.
“There is nothing better than match-practice. All the players will get to play at least three matches so I believe they will make the best use of it,” said Mashrafe at the pre-tournament media conference yesterday.
It has been widely assumed that the two-week break leading upto the BCL one-dayers will do the cricketers more harm than good but Mashrafe thinks otherwise.
“I think the 10 or 12-day break gave the players sufficient recovery time. Actually, you have nothing else to do. The series against Pakistan is only a couple of weeks away so the sooner we start preparing, the better,” said the 31-year old cricketer.
The Narail Express believes Bangladesh will be able to hold onto the brilliant form that they had exhibited in the 2015 ICC World Cup and added that the BCL one-dayers will help the cricketers to overcome their glitches before meeting Pakistan in their first home series this year.
The Tigers gave a great account of themselves in the recently concluded World Cup and despite initial concerns, the Bangladesh cricketers performed admirably in fast and batting-friendly wickets. When queried if the BCB should adopt a similar approach as far as preparing sporting wickets is concerned, Mashrafe said, “Yes, we should play more on sporting wickets as there is no doubt that it will help us in away matches. But, one also has to consider the home advantage. Our team, especially at home, rely on spin. Playing on sporting wickets is not a bad idea but before we introduce them in international series’ at home, I think we need to work more.”
Skippers of the other three BCL teams were also present in the presser yesterday.
Back-to-back World Cup centurion Mahmudullah will lead Walton Central Zone while BCB North Zone will be captained by middle-order batsman Nasir Hossain. Left-handed batsman Mominul Haque will skipper Islami Bank East Zone.
Nasir will lead BCB North Zone in place of Bangladesh’s Test skipper Mushfiqur Rahim, who asked to be rested from his captaincy duties while Mominul will only captain Islami Bank East Zone in their opening match. Opener Tamim Iqbal will take over captaincy duties in the second match.
The only cricketer missing from the roster of the BCL one-dayers is ace all-rounder Shakib al Hasan, who is currently in India to participate in the first two matches of the Indian Premier League’s eighth edition.