BCB announces three-team T20 league to be played during T20 World Cup

The BCB has launched a T20 tournament called the Odommo Bangladesh T20 Cup, which begins on February 5. The three-team competition will feature all of the country's top cricketers, who are missing the T20 World Cup after the Bangladesh government barred them from playing in India.

Litton Das, Najmul Hossain Shanto and Akbar Ali will lead Dhumketu XI, Durbar XI and Duronto XI respectively, with all the teams playing each other once in the round-robin phase. The group matches will be held on February 5, 6 and 7. The top two teams will face off in the final on February 9. All the matches will be played at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka.

The BCB have also introduced the impact player rule for the tournament, a first for an official match in Bangladesh. A member of the starting eleven can be swapped out at any point in the match for a twelfth player chosen from a roster of options announced at the toss.

The tournament, which has been given official T20 status by the BCB, carries total prize money and fees worth Tk 2.5 crore (USD 204,504 approx.) according to a press release.

Some Bangladesh players have expressed concern at missing out on the T20 World Cup, without fully revealing their feelings or details of their January 24 meeting with government officials.

Bangladesh's participation in the T20 World Cup became tenuous when sports adviser Asif Nazrul said the team wouldn't travel to India, days after the BCCI withdrew Mustafizur Rahman from the IPL. It set off a chain reaction among cricket administrators, and three weeks later, the ICC named Scotland as Bangladesh's replacement after negotiations fell through between the global body and Bangladesh.

Bangladesh's cricketers are in the middle of a light domestic season in terms of on-field workload, with many domestic teams opting to boycott the Dhaka leagues. So far, the Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League has not taken place for the 2025-26 season either.