A new dawn in T20 cricket in Bangladesh rises as the NCL T20 league returns after 14 years. The eight-team league starts at two separate venues in Sylhet today.聽
The only edition of the domestic T20 league so far was held in 2010 with six teams participating, where Rajshahi emerged as the champions.
That was before the inception of the Bangladesh Premier League鈥攖he country鈥檚 sole franchise-based league in T20 format.聽
But as BPL is a franchise-based league where often the foreign players dominate, another T20 tournament was always in need among the cricketers and coaches.聽
There had been Port City T20 before the BPL and some editions of DPL T20, but none of those leagues had been held on a regular basis.
Now the cricketers will have another platform to hone their skills in the shortest format of the game.聽
The eight teams will be Dhaka, Dhaka Metro, Sylhet, Rangpur, Rajshahi, Khulna, Chattogram, and Barishal, all regulars in the first-class league NCL.
All of the matches will be held at two Sylhet venues: the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium and the adjacent Outer Ground, with four matches each day in the group stage.
The matches at the main ground will begin at 9:30am and 1:30pm each day, while the two matches at the outer ground begin at 9:00am and 1:00pm, respectively.聽
In a single-league format, every team will play against each other. And after the group stage, there will be a playoff round where the format will be the same as the BPL.聽
The third and fourth teams will face off in an eliminator match, whereas the top two will play in the first qualifier.聽
The loser of the eliminator will be knocked out directly, whereas the winner of the first qualifier will go directly into the final.
The winner of the eliminator and the loser of the first qualifier will then take on each other for second place in the final.聽
The playoff matches and the final will be held at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium, with the final scheduled on December 24 at 12:30pm.聽
The tournament will see the return of the likes of Tamim Iqbal and Najmul Hossain Shanto.聽
Tamim, the former national team captain, last played in May in the Dhaka Premier Division cricket League.聽
Meanwhile, current national team captain Shanto was ruled out from the Test and ODI series against the West Indies due to an injury.聽
He is supposed to lead Rajshahi. The BCB announced the eight teams and hosted several programmes ahead of the tournament.聽
It鈥檚 reported that the champion team will receive a prize of Tk 20 lakh, whereas the runners-up will get Tk 10 lakh.聽
T Sports will televise 18 matches, whereas all the matches will be streamed on various platforms.
