[Sham]

This is going to be a long post folks, so sit back and make yourselves comfortable.

We have all been thinking about the different aspects of cricket in BD and how to bring us up to par with other Test sides. I think we all agree that having a proper, structured and consistent First Class League is absolutely essential to improving the standard of cricket in BD. I have been doing a lot of thinking on this and have reached the following conclusions.

Firstly, I think the First Class Competition should involve the six divisional sides and that is all. I know some of you on this board want a combination of divisional and Dhaka club sides. But that just makes things messy with players having divided loyalties. Also, I don't think we should have too many First Class sides. We should have few so that the talent is concentrated and the standard of cricket is better rather than having too many teams, which will spread the talent more thinly and the standard will suffer. Lets say we have 30 national team hopefuls in Bangladesh at any given time. If we have 6 teams, there will be on average 5 players in each team who are trying to get into the national side. If we have 10 first class teams, there will be an average of only 3 players in each team who are good enough to play for the national team and so each team will be weaker. We want a few good teams rather than a lot of poor teams. (Just look at the difference in standard between Australia, which has 6 state sides and England, which has 18 county sides)

Secondly, we should settle on a time of year when our First Class League will be played. The County Championship in England starts in the last week of April and ends in the first week of September, and that has not changed in the last one hundred years! Every year, BCB changes the dates, pushes it forwards, then pushes it back, its ridiculous. Also, the first class tournament should be played over a period of several months like they do in all other countries. I suggest that we begin sometime at the end of October (last week) and play on till the middle of March. That gives us about 20 weeks (there will be breaks for Eid and stuff like that).

If each of the divisional sides play the each of the others thrice, that will mean 15 four-day games per side in 20 weeks. Each four-day game should be followed by a one-day like it does currently (taken from the county system). On top of that we could get each of the divisional sides to play the BCB Development side twice in three-day matches (no points), just like each of the county sides in England plays Oxford University and Cambridge University once each in three-day matches. The divisional side with the highest points will be champions for the year (no Finals). It would be good to have good cash incentives for winning and being runners-up (not for the players but for the team).

So, each divisional side will play 15 four-day games followed by one-dayers, and 2 three-day games in 20 weeks. It should begin and end at the same time each year. If BD has a foreign tour or a home series, the national players can leave in the middle of the League and come back and rejoin the league just as they do in every other country. But the league must be consistent.

Now, since we will only have six sides, we must make sure that these sides are given every bit of help possible. This means, each side will have a regular home ground (which they do but will have to be improved in some cases, Rajshahi, Barisal, Khulna). They must play on good sporting pitches and have good indoor and outdoor practice facilities. Providing six teams with good pitches, proper indoor and outdoor practice facilities and fitness centres may be expensive, but it will be money well spent.

Each divisional side must have a good head coach. Not some ex-footballer like most cricket coaches in BD right now, but a proper cricket coach. If they bring in foreign coaches for these sides (sub-continentals of course, others would be too expensive) even better!

Also, I believe it will be good to allow each divisional side to have one or two foreign players. It will further raise the standard of cricket. You raise the quality of the teams and it raises the standard and intensity of the cricket being played, as simple as that. However, if a divisional team signs a couple of foreign players, they must do so for the entire season. They should not allow them to bring in a high profile player for one important match in the middle of the season like they do in the Dhaka League (flying in Jayasuriya for one match!)

Once we get this system in place, we could replicate it for the second XI of each divisional side. Have that going simultaneously so if a player is doing poorly for Chittagong firsts, they can drop him and bring someone in from the seconds. More competition for places.

I think if we could have a system such as this and make it run well for a few years, cricket in BD will improve by leaps and bounds. Of course, it will have to be given all the logistic and financial support required. No point having all this if they continue to play on poor pitches, don't have good practice facilities, no proper coaching etc. These things have to be ensured.

So how do we get money and popularity into a divisional first class league? I think for this, the BCB will have to be imaginative, go beyond cricket and tap into society in general. For examples, why not get some of the large corporate companies in BD to sponsor one of the divisional sides each. Lets get the Transcoms, Beximcos, Rangs, Singers of the world into cricket. Nirman poured in a lot of money for many years into the schools' championships. All these companies spend lakhs putting ads on TV when Bangladesh plays. But no one watches BD play anymore because we suck. Might as well put the money into infrastructure. We can call the Dhaka side Rangs Dhaka and Chittagong can be Singer Chittagong. Sounds silly, but they need the promotion and cricket needs the money!

Also, do an aggressive promotional campaign to get people excited about the league. Show matches on TV, inject some divisional pride (go Sylhet, go Kapali, go Rajin!) We have so many members on this board; we could have some serious divisional rivalries going (Tehsin bhai, Chittagong SUX!) We have to go past Abahani-Mohammadan folks, cricket has to go national and each of the divisional towns have to be centres of cricket!

As you all have probably figured out (if you have gotten this far), I have been thinking about this quite a bit. But I am sure this can be further improved. I'm really looking forward to what all of you think and how we can improve things further. I'm sure I've missed stuff out. So write in your comments and suggestions folks. We can even start lobbying Lobi! Thats what we are here for as Samir said in another thread.




[Edited on 2-3-2003 by Sham]