Bangabandhu T20 Cup to start from tomorrow !

With a view to hosting Bangladesh and West Indies series in January within a bio secured bubble atmosphere, the Bangladesh cricket board has decided to start the much-anticipated Bangabandhu T20 Cup, a five-team tournament, which rolls onto the ground on Tuesday.

Beximco Dhaka will take on Minister Group Rajshahi in the first match of the day while Fortune Barishal will face off Gemcon Khulna in the second game. All of the matches of the tournament will be played at the ‘Home of Cricket’ Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, reports BSS.

The first match is on 1.30 PM while the second game starts on 6.30 PM. State run Bangladesh Television and country’s new sports channel T Sports will telecast the matches live.

Walton, the country’s leading electrical, electronic goods and automobiles manufacturing company, became the title sponsor of the Bangabandhu T20 Cup.

The official name of the tournament is ‘Bangabandhu T20 Cup Sponsored by Walton.’ The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) will also celebrate the birth centenary of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman with the high voltage tournament.

The event is the part of the continuing initiatives of the BCB, aiming at a gradual resumption of normal cricketing activities which have been disrupted since March this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The BCB is expecting that the Bangabandhu T20 Cup will be helpful in fulfilling their aspiration to bring back International cricket in the country.

The tournament will be held in bio-secure environment to keep the players, officials and other stakeholders at safe zone. The five teams and around 300 people including 80 cricketers will stay in bio-bubble till the end of the tournament. By managing such a huge number of people in a bio-bubble would be tougher task but BCB hoped they could organize it successfully to give a message to the rest of the world.

The BCB earlier successfully organized BCB President’s Cup-a one-day format tournament that included around 70 people in the bio-bubble.

“The T20 Cup is the follow-up tournament of the BCB President’s Cup. Since we have many International matches ahead, this tournament will help us to cope with the environment,” BCB media and communication committee chairman Jalal Younus said.

“We want to let the foreign teams know that we have ensured a bio-secure environment here. This tournament will help us to organize International matches in future.”

What is the important aspect of the tournament is that only local players will play the tournament. 157 local players were put into the players’ draft through which the five teams-Beximco Dhaka, Gemcon Khulna, Minster Group Rajshahi, Gazi Group Chattogram and Fortune Barishal formed their team.