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Another picnic edition?

National Cricket League starts today

Sports Reporter
There have been a lot of promises made about the country's lone first class competition, but the thirteenth edition of the National Cricket League (NCL) will start quietly today at four different venues across the country.
The number of participating teams has been increased this season from six to eight as Rangpur Division and Dhaka Metropolis have been added to the existing pool of teams: Dhaka Division, Rajshahi Division, Sylhet Division, Barisal Division, Khulna Division and Chittagong Division.
In the opening four-day matches, defending champions Rajshahi take on Dhaka Metro at the Shaheed Kamruzzaman Stadium in Rajshahi, Dhaka face Rangpur at the Shaheed Chandu Stadium in Bogra, Sylhet hosts Khulna at the Sylhet Divisional Stadium and Barisal meet with Chittagong at BKSR
The Tigers will not feature in the first few rounds as they are now busy with the home series against West Indies but it is mandatory for contracted cricketers to appear in the NCL if they do not have international commitments.
After every poor showing by the national team, those close to the game often raised their voices in favour of a true first-class competition in the country, but in practice the authorities
concerned hardly paid any attention in the past to the most important domestic competition, and this year is no exception. The question remains how serious the authorities are about this tournament?
Like the previous season the NCL is going to take place without any sponsor, although the tournament committee insist that they had informed the marketing committee about the matter three months back.
BCB's CEO Manzur Ahmed however was still hopeful that they will get a sponsor. “Still we are working and we are hopeful about getting a sponsor for the tournament. They (the divisions) should also try to get sponsor for their respective teams,” hoped Manzur.
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) made it an eight-team competition; a whimsical decision which created chaos when it was found that there was a shortage of quality players to fulfil the demands of eight teams.
To make up for the shortfall, the national selectors chose 32 icon players with each team allowed a maximum of four icon players. The selectors also distributed the free icon players as Nur Hossain Munna of Dhaka will play for Chittagong, Nadif Chowdhury of Dhaka will play for Sylhet, Dhaka's Nasiruddin Faruque will turn up for Barisal, Rajshahi's Shafiul Islam will represent Rangpur, Syed Rasel of Khulna will play for Barisal and
Khulna's Robiul Islam given to Sylhet.
“True, it would be nice if we can continue with the six teams. Unfortunately we found that we have a lack of quality players in the country, so you may raise questions about the quality of the tournament, but it also gave us a chance to test our strength,” said Manzur.
“I think there are some positive things in this year's competition as we are very much sincere about providing good wickets, which I believe was the major problem. The participation of the national players has been made compulsory while the national selectors picked 32 icon players and equally distributed them which I think will make the tournament competitive. We also allow the teams to field one foreign player this season," continued Manzur adding that they also increased the prize money and allowance of the players.
Each team will be allowed to register up to three overseas players but can field only one who has the experience of playing first-class cricket, in each game.
Manzur also said that they scrapped the home and away basis system due to time constraints.
Many believe that there will never develop the sense of belonging among the players for their respective divisions if things carry on like this but Manzur however said that it takes time
FROM PAGE 16
to give the real shape of the divisional teams.
The competition, which has often been derisively called 'picnic cricket', consists of two phases, with the teams playing each other once in the first phase and the top four going through to a second round-robin stage before the final.
SQUADS
RAJSHAHI: Mushfiqur Rahim, Saqlain Sajib, Junaed Siddiqui, Jahurul Islam, Forhad Reza (captain), Anisur Rahman, Mohammad Shahajada, Forhad Hossain, Shabbir Rahman, Delwar Hossain, Mysikur Rahman, Mizanur Rahman, Zubair Ahmed, Muktar Ali, Shumon Shaha, Shafaq Al Zabir, Hamidul Islam, Sunjamul Islam, Taijul Islam and Habibur Rahman.
DHAKA: Mahmudullah Riyad, Shuvagoto Hom, Rakibul Hasan, Shahadat Hossain, Mohammad Sharif (captain), Uttam Kumar Saerker, Mushrraf Hossain, Nazmul Hossain, SaikatAli, Abdul Mazid, RonyTalukder, Nazmul Hossain, Mahbubul Alam, Lablu, Nur Hossain, Mohammad Shaid, Hannan Sarker, Saju Dutta, Abul Bashar andTaibur Rahman.
DHAKA METRO: Mohammad Ashraful (captain), Mohammad Elias, Mehrab Hossain, Shamsur Rahman, Marshal Ayub, Sharifuilah, Tasamul Haque, Arafat Sunny, Asif Ahmed, Arafat Salauddin, Talha Jubaer, Tareq Aziz Khan, Emon Ahmed, Arman Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Furkan and Javed Omar.
RANGPUR: Sohrawardi Shuvo, Naeem Islam, Nasir Hossain, Shafiul Islam, Sajedul Islam, Tanvir Ahmed, Dhiman Ghosh, Saymon Ahmed, AR Rahman Rony, Mahmudul Hasan, Mohammad Salauddin, Mohammad Afir, Ferdous Ahmed, Afsharul Alam, Liton Kumar Das, Tarik Ahmed (captain), Alauddin Babu, Ariful Haque, Shuvashish Roy and Menhaj Reja. KHULNA: Shakib Al Hasan, Imrul Kayes, Abdur Razzak, Sahagir Hossain, Tushar Imran (captain), Mohammad Mithun, NIzamuddin Ripon, Fariduddin Masud, Murad Khan, Dollar Mahmud, Ashraful Haque, Ziaur Rahman, Taposh Ghosh, Amit Majumder, Bishwant Halder, Zubaydur Rahman, Monowar Hossain, Soumya Sarker, Nazmus Sadat and Anamul Haque.
BARISAL: Shahriar Nafees (captain), Nasiruddin Faruque, Syed Rase), Kamrul Islam, Bikas Sharma, Nuruzzaman, Mohammed Shajib, Abid Hossain, Iftekhar Nayeem, Sohag Gazi, Monir Hossain, Israk Sonnet, Islamul Ahsan, Golam Kabir, Towhidul Islam, Salman Hossain, Shamsul Islam, Shaheen Hossain, Fazle Rabbi and Mohiuddin Belal.
SYLHET: Alok Kapali, Nazmul Hossain, Robiul Islam, Nadif Chowdhury, Sayem Alam, Ruman Ahmed, Ejaz Ahmed, Golam Mabud, Nabil Samad, Shaker Ahmed, Abu Jayed Chowdhury, Ahmed Sadequr, Nasum Ahmed, Imtiaz Hussain (captain), Enamul Haque, Rajin Saleh, Taposh Baishya and Abul Hassan.
CHITTAGONG: Tamim Iqbal, Rubel Hossain, Nazimuddin (captain), Nur Hossain, Nafis Iqbal, Mahbubul Karim, Mominul Haque, Aftab Ahmed, Faisal Hossain, Sadit Hossain, Irfan Sukur, Kazi Kamrul, Iqbal Hossain, Meraj Ahmed, Yasin Arafat, Maksudul Hasan, Sazzadul Haque, Rezaul Karim, Gazi Salauddin and Rasel Al Mamun.