BCB committee suggests better structured domestic season

The cricket operations committee of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has suggested that the domestic first-class competition, the National Cricket League (NCL), be completed before the commencement limited-overs tournaments in the 2012-13 season. A final decision on the recommendation will be taken a board meeting on August 6.

The 2012-13 domestic calendar, for the main local competitions, looks quite structured at this early stage of discussion: The first-class competition has been scheduled to begin in early October, running till mid-January, after which the cricketers will take a break and then play the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) from mid-February. The one-day Dhaka Premier League (DPL) tournament is slated to begin in March and run till May.

"The committee has recommended that after completing the NCL, there will be the BPL and the DPL. If the national cricketers are not available during the one-day competition, we will not be using the players' pool," the BCB spokesman, Jalal Yunus, said on Wednesday.

The cancellation of the players' pool would mean that the DPL clubs are no longer bound to pick three current national cricketers each, as they won't be available during the time - Bangladesh are scheduled to tour Sri Lanka in March and Zimbabwe in April next year.

The 2011-12 domestic calendar took on a disorganised air, after the BCB's decision to stop the NCL, which had begun in October, with just one match remaining in its second round. The DPL then began, only to be interrupted by the BPL in February. Though the NCL was eventually completed in April, the DPL dispute added to the scheduling confusion. The season ended in June, the longest it has run.

A proposal for a franchise-based four-day domestic competition will also be discussed at the meeting on August 6. Currently, negotiations with various companies interested in buying franchises for the proposed tournament are on.