Countries Bangladesh First tournament 2012-13 Number of teams 4 | Format First-class cricket Tournament format Round-robin | |
Administrator Bangladesh Cricket Board | ||
The Bangladesh Cricket League is an annual first-class cricket tournament that began in Bangladesh in the 2012-13 season.
Contents
History
The Bangladesh Cricket League (BCL) was inaugurated in the 2012-13 season as a four-team first-class tournament comprising the best-performing players from the eight-team National Cricket League (NCL). The aim was to raise the level of the nation's top first-class competition and so prepare players better for Test cricket.
The BCL consists of four zonal teams, each made up of players from teams representing two adjacent regions in the NCL. The teams are as follows:
Each team is owned and officially named as a franchise: Walton Central Zone, Prime Bank South Zone, Islami Bank East Zone, and BCB North Zone. The owners have remained unchanged since the beginning. The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has been unable to find a buyer for the North Zone franchise.
The matches are played on a limited number of nominally neutral grounds, without home and away matches.
Winners
2012-13
In the final, Central Zone beat North Zone by 31 runs. Sanjamul Islam (North Zone) took 8 for 73 in the second innings of the final, which remained the best bowling figures in the tournament until the 2016-17 season.
Matches took place between December 2012 and February 2013, at Mirpur (in Central Zone) and Bogra (in North Zone). The highest scorer was Marshall Ayub (Central Zone) (465 runs, average 77.50) and the leading wicket-takers were Sohag Gazi (South Zone) (19 wickets, average 24.47) and Mosharraf Hossain (Central Zone) (19 wickets, average 25.31). Marshall Ayub was named player of the tournament; he scored 289 against East Zone, which remains the highest score in the tournament.
2013-14
In the final South Zone beat North Zone by 213 runs.
Matches took place in January and May 2014, the round-robin matches at Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protisthan cricket grounds 2, 3 and 4 in Savar, and the final at Mirpur (all in Central Zone). The highest scorer was Imrul Kayes (South Zone) (511 runs, average 73.00) and the leading wicket-taker was Taijul Islam (North Zone) (37 wickets, average 17.24). Taijul Islam was named player of the tournament.
2014-15
There was no final. Matches took place in April and May 2015, at Fatullah and Mirpur (both in Central Zone) and Chittagong (in East Zone). The highest scorer was Alok Kapali (East Zone) (408 runs, average 102.00) and the leading wicket-taker was Abdur Razzak (South Zone) (18 wickets, average 19.00).
In April 2015, the BCL staged a One-Day League, which was won by East Zone.
2015-16
There was no final. Instead of a single round-robin, as in previous years, a double round-robin was held from mid-January to mid-March 2016. Matches were played at Rajshahi and Bogra (both in North Zone), Cox's Bazar (East Zone), and Mirpur and Fatullah (both in Central Zone). The highest scorer was Marshall Ayub (Central Zone), with 562 runs at 56.20, while Abdur Razzak (South Zone) took the most wickets, 38 at 32.15.