Cricket news - BCB announces DPL T20 as permanent fixture in domestic calendar

The newly-introduced Dhaka Premier League Twenty20 will be a permanent fixture in domestic calendar, announced Bangladesh Cricket Board on Monday (March 4).

BCB launched the tournament this season, with Lt Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club defeating Prime Doleshwar Sporting Club by 24 runs in the final at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.

According to the board, the entire initiative was taken as a part of promoting the shortest version of the game among the local cricketers. BCB wanted to make the T20 tournament a foundation ground for the Bangladesh Premier League, country's franchise-based T20 tournament, and provide more players for the national setup.

While BPL is dominated by foreign cricketers and major stars of the national unit, it has hardly been productive in terms of developing local cricketers as most of them are ignored by the franchises. As a result, Bangladesh have largely failed to produce quality T20 players in the last five years despite BPL's success.

Despite launching the DPL T20 tournament, there were doubts whether it would be able to attract the attention of the 12 clubs as they were often reluctant to play the tournament without the national players.

It was often observed that the Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metropolis were forced to change the dates of the DPL as per demands of the clubs, who in turn noted that they are not too keen to participate in the tournament without availability of national cricketers.

The trend seemed to have changed during the DPL T20 2018-19 as the club officials became more understanding regarding the availability of national cricketers.

''We were always told that without national players, we don't want to play 50-over matches in domestic cricket and the enthusiasm is even lesser for T20 cricket. We wanted to come out of it and we did,'' Nazmul Hasan, BCB's president, said.

''Whether the national players are available or not, we will organise this tournament every year and I firmly believe this will go on. This will happen along with the Premier League or even if there is no Premier League this tournament will still go on. We wanted to arrange such a tournament for a long time (to come).

"The best part is that it was quite competitive, even without national players or overseas cricketers. And people are following it. 61 cricketers made their debuts in T20 cricket and we believe (it) is a great achievement. And among them some of them are quite talented. We feel someday they might even play in the national team,'' he noted.

Incidentally, BPL's franchises during the 2017-18 edition had the luxury of picking up five overseas players in the final XI. Even though during the 2018-19 season, BCB decided to allow four foreign cricketers in the final XI, there was still a demand for a T20 tournament that will allow the local cricketers to learn the trade.

Several national cricketers, including Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah, also had urged the importance of a local T20 tournament for developing emerging players.

"We didn't get enough chances to play the matches in BPL. The foreigners mainly dominated the BPL. If you can't play at least 10 to 15 matches in this format throughout the year, (then) how can you understand the nature of the format. So it's a good tournament for all local players. I think performance in this tournament will give us more exposure in BPL too," Farhad Reza, Prime Doleshwar's captain said.

Nurul Hasan, who led champions Sheikh Jamal in the inaugural edition of the tournament, also praised the tournament and believed it will come good in the long run.

"In India, there are a lot of T20 tournaments for their local players. So they learn to play well in the format and later make their presence in IPL as well as T20 internationals. Finally, we also got such a tournament exclusively for the local players.

''It is always tough to play all matches in the BPL because every franchise wants to win the trophy, so they emphasise on foreign players to bolster their top order or on the bowling front. As we have now this sort of a tournament, I hope our players will also thrive in this format,'' he concluded.