Bangladesh, T20 tournament
BCB is set to launch a new T20 tournament. Image Courtesy: Getty

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), on Monday (February 18th), revealed they are set to launch a domestic T20 tournament which begins on February 25th and will go until March 3rd. Meanwhile, the initiative has been taken to promote the shortest version of the game among the local cricketers. The 12 participating teams from Dhaka Premier Division Cricket, country’s club-based tournament; will take part in the competition. Also, it will be played in four groups on league-basis. The toppers will advance to the semis, scheduled for March 1st.

The launch of a new competition

Though the name to the tournament is yet to get decided, a few of the reports say it is likely to get a name – Dhaka Premier League (DPL) Twenty20 Cricket Tournament. As the players’ draft for the upcoming edition of the DPL concluded, the announcement was made in public domain. Kazi Inam Ahmad, the chairman of Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metropolis, said,

“We decided to launch the T20 tournament that will be played between the 12 participating teams of DPL. Initially, it will be played on a small scale, so we decided to complete the tournament within a week’s time but in future, we will try to hold it in a bigger way,” Kazi said.

Since Bangladesh suffers the most in the T20 format, the board had come in terms to introduce a new T20 tournament. In the country, Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) is the only domestic T20 competition; meanwhile, in the other countries, they have more than one tournaments for the shortest format – thus finding players to exceed in Twenty20 cricket at the grassroots level.

Time to unearth new talent – Iman

Since the foreign players and stars in the national setup dominate the BPL, overlooking the young, unexplored talent has hurt Bangladesh in a broader picture. Not only Kazi Inam Ahmad but Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah urged the need of an additional T20 tournament in the country to find talent.

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“I think this is the first step forward to take T20 cricket ahead in our country,” said Inam. “For example, there is the Syed Mushtaq tournament in India and a lot of cricketers come to the IPL from there after showcasing their talent in the tournament.

“We want to make this T20 tournament quite similar to it where we can give some potential T20 cricketers a solid platform to show their talent,” he said.

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