NCL could be more competitive with top cricketers: Razzak

Once again, the National Cricket League went underway without the top national cricketers, which has become a usual scenario for this first-class cricket tournament.

National Selector and former cricketer Abdur Razzak believes that the tournament has become way more competitive than it usually was in the opening seasons but if the top national cricketers get involved, the competition level will go up.

Razzak, who was in Sylhet for observing the NCL matches, told The Business Post that the competition level has gone up but accommodating top cricketers like Mushfiqur Rahim or Shakib Al Hasan, who represent the national team in all three formats, will be difficult these days.

“We can not wait and sit idle for the national team cricketers. In that case, the first-class tournament will not go on,” he said.

Cricket officials repeatedly talk about improving the standard of domestic first-class cricket, but in reality, very little is done to do so.

Bangladesh Cricket Board and the cricket committee for Dhaka Metropolis fix the schedule for Bangladesh Premier League and the Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League in such times when the national team is not engaged, but the board officials do not care that much for NCL.

Razzak, who got the role as a selector earlier this year after being overlooked for the national team despite a great deal of success in the NCL, said that the biggest reason is time.

“The NCL has been starting in October for quite a few years. DPL was reduced to the T20 format last season, but you cannot reduce the number of days in first-class,” said the former left-arm spinner.

All the available cricketers who are in the national contract playing in the NCL for their respective region.

“I think at present nobody makes excuses to skip NCL. The national team left to play the World Cup. Naturally, NCL is not bigger than the World Cup or any international series. Only Tamim Iqbal is not playing, because he is injured. Everyone else is playing,” Razzak told The Business Post.

“Those who have played in the national team or are playing, they might play in the NCL for practice, but massive improvement can’t be made by playing here in NCL. But for the rest of the cricketers, this is very important. If you say that the longer version of cricket should be like the county cricket, that cannot be done overnight. But gradually the competition level is improving and obviously, if the national players get involved, the bar will be raised,” he added.

Bangladesh will face Pakistan at home in a two-Test series right after the T20 World Cup campaign, and the cricketers who represent Bangladesh in all three formats could find it difficult to shift gears.

Razzak thinks that so long Bangladesh will not have enough quality cricketers to form separate teams for two versions of cricket, the problem will be there.

“As we don’t have a smaller player’s pool, you can not segregate the T20 team and Test team entirely as we have a good deal of players who are common in all the versions of the game. So, for the time being, we have to adjust to the situation, I don’t think we can do much in this regard. The only way out is to form entirely different teams.”

A newly built venue was launched at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium, referred to as the” Academy Ground”, which instantly turned out to be a minefield for the batsmen as 21 wickets fell on the opening day.

Razzak, who witnessed the match, said that the batsmen performed poorly.

“I am in Sylhet. I was in the field. They did not bat well. The wicket was not that bad, but the batsmen could not perform well. Moreover, as we are playing Test matches on spinning tracks against countries outside the sub-continent, so our batsmen should also develop the habit of handling spin from domestic cricket as well,” he said.