From daily star
As promised the BCB is going to model the country's lone first-class competition -- the National Cricket League (NCL) -- on a franchise-based system. The fourteenth version of the tournament will start from October 14 at four different venues across the country, said BCB president AHM Mustafa Kamal after the board's emergency meeting yesterday.
“We want to start it. It may happen that of the eight franchises only two or three can get sponsors. In that case the rest will play under their respective division's banner. We should start it to introduce real competitiveness in the first-class competition,” said Kamal.
“As you saw, there were some teething problems in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) T20 because we started in a hurry. Here too, there may be some teething problems, but it is important to get it off the ground,” he added.
He also informed that it will be a single-league-based tournament where the two top finishers will play the final. The board also decided that it will introduce day-night matches during this tournament, for which the pink ball being trialled worldwide will be used.
“The opening and final matches will be day-night affairs which will take place at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur,” he added.
BCB took the decision to arrange day-night longer version matches in line with ICC's efforts to introduce day-night Tests.
BCB RELAXES CLAUSE TO ATTRACT BIDDERS
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) brought some leniency to one clause to attract more bidders to their international tender for worldwide media rights.
The amendment was made to the pre-requisites for prospective bidders during the board's marathon emergency meeting and accordingly, a tender will be accepted if one among the marketing agent and the broadcaster has five years' experience in a related field.
The previous clause which stated that only companies with five years of experience can buy the bid papers rendered several prominent companies ineligible to participate in the bidding.
Kamal will head a new committee to approve the successful bidders alongside BCB directors Ahmed Iqbal Hassan (finance committee chairman), Jalal Yunus (media chairman) and Mirza Salman Ispahani (tender and purchase committee chairman).
“We made the amendment following a poor response from the companies. We are expecting a much better response now before the end of the new deadline. We took a tough stance regarding the TV deal this time because of our previous bitter experience,” said Kamal.
He also hoped that they can make the deal by September 16.
“The fresh deadline for submission is September 12 and on the same day the board meeting will take place to work out all the details. We are hopeful that we can make the deal by September 15 or 16,” he added.
The board was forced to extend the date as only two companies including Ten Sports bought the schedule before the last date on August 30, and two more companies bought the schedule after that date. The board are expecting more before the end of the new deadline to purchase the schedule on September 6.
DISCIPLINARY COMMITTEE TO INQUIRE INTO THE SHAHRIAR NAFEES CASE
The disciplinary matter related to left-handed batsman Shahriar Nafees's conduct during the Bangladesh A team's recent tour of India has been referred to the board's disciplinary committee. The committee has been asked to submit a report in 14 days.
The left-hander was sent home before the third group game due to his misconduct in the second game of the Shafi Darashah tournament in Bangalore. He was then not considered for selection for the 18-member preliminary Bangladesh A squad for the training camp ahead of their home series against the West Indies High Performance team.
CASH REWARD FOR U19 TEAM
The two top performers of the Bangladesh Under-19 team -- captain Anamul Haque and bowler Taskin Ahmed -- in the recently concluded ICC Under-19 World Cup in Australia will be awarded Tk 2 lakh each and the other members of the squad will each get Tk 1 lakh for their impressive performance in the showpiece event.
The Bangladesh Under-19s finished seventh in the recently concluded ICC U19 World Cup in Australia beating Pakistan in the play-off match.
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