BCB launch women’s first-class tournament with an eye on Test cricket

BCB Launches Women's First-Class Tournament for Test Cricket Preparation

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is introducing a first-class competition for women, the Women's Bangladesh Cricket League (WBCL), to prepare the national team for Test cricket. The tournament, set to begin on December 21 in Rajshahi, will feature four teams: South, North, East, and Central. They will compete in three-day matches across four rounds.

In the first round:

• South will face East
• Central will play North

The second round, scheduled for December 26-28, will have:

• South versus North
• Central versus East

The remaining rounds will be played after the Bangladesh women's team returns from their West Indies tour.

The Bangladesh women's team received Test status in 2021, but they have yet to participate in a Test match. Habibul Bashar, head of BCB's women's wing, mentioned that the WBCL is a step towards preparing the team for Test cricket:

If we want to play Tests, we need to play first-class matches… This WBCL will certainly help us to prepare.

The first WBCL was held in 2023 as a two-day tournament, but this year, the BCB aims to assess the women's performance in three-day matches. Habibul Bashar added:

I think our girls need to adapt with three-day cricket if they want to play longer version at international level… But for that, we need to prepare ourselves and this WBCL will certainly help us to prepare.