The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) may step back from their decision not to arrange any longer-version cricket before the 2011 World Cup where Bangladesh is one of three co-hosts.
To provide enough one-day matches for the Tigers ahead of the showcase event, the board has already slashed the two-match Test series at home against New Zealand and instead is going to host five one-day internationals in September-October.
After the last board meeting it had also been confirmed that the longer-version of the National Cricket League (NCL), the lone first-class competition in the country, will take place after the World Cup, which will be inaugurated on February 17 next year at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.
But BCB's director and tournament committee chairman Gazi Ashraf Hossain informed yesterday that they are thinking of holding longer-version matches in at least the first round of the NCL.
"The cricket operations committee is working on the issue. It was supposed to be placed before the today's [Monday] technical committee meeting but it was postponed. There is a chance to start the season with the National League longer-version matches because we don't want to waste any time," said Gazi Ashraf.
"The national players will be busy with the home series against New Zealand but we can easily complete the first round of matches with the rest of the players. I think the national players will get enough opportunities to play limited-over games before the World Cup so there is no point of upsetting the domestic calendar," the former national skipper added.
As per the draft calendar, the Premier Division T20 will start from November 27 and the most coveted 50-over competition will likely start from December 8. The NCL one-day competition, which wasn't held last year due to time constraint, will take place after the conclusion of the Premier League.
"So we have September and October in our hands and there is no point to waste the season's two months," said Ashraf adding that they are not interested to hurt the domestic calendar for the World Cup.
In this season the Premier Division League matches may be held outside Dhaka due to the unavailability of the major venues like Mirpur and Fatullah due to construction work for the World Cup.
The country's major cricket venues in Dhaka and Chittagong are under construction for the mega event. Bangladesh will stage eight matches including two of the quarterfinals.
Source: thedailystar.net
