Rain-hit National Cricket League postponed to December

Bangladesh's first-class competition, the National Cricket League, has been postponed till the end of the Bangladesh Premier League T20 tournament, which ends on December 9. Three rounds of NCL matches in both the first and second tier were held before October 11, but rain affected every match in the third round.

The BCB had announced that matches from the fourth round onwards, scheduled for October 14 to 17, were to be put off until the weather improved. But while the weather did improve, the NCL was shelved because of the impending BPL, which begins on November 4.

All Tier-1 NCL matches that began on September 25 had ended in rain-curtailed draws and only two Tier-2 matches yielded results. Barisal Division were leading Tier-1 with 23 points while Rajshahi Division, with 33, were on top of Tier-2.

The NCL is set to restart in mid-December but will be without Bangladesh's international players, who will be in Australia for a camp before the tour of New Zealand.

The postponement of the NCL came following calls for better first-class cricket in Bangladesh, especially after the senior team's 22-run loss in the Chittagong Test against England. Bangladesh were mostly competitive in that match but problems with their fast bowling raised questions about the standard of first-class cricket in the country.