ACS Overseas First-Class Annual 2010

Bangladesh in 2009/10 The newest full member of ICC, Bangladesh maintained its efforts in 2009/10 to establish itself as a fully-fledged Test-playing nation. Winning both Tests in West Indies in 2009 (see ‘Matches in 2009’) was an encouraging start, albeit the West Indies team was gravely weakened by internal disputes. But in 2009/10, Bangladesh’s five Tests all ended in heavy defeats, and the reason was easy to see: although the batsmen often performed well, the bowlers seemed generally unable to dismiss opponents for a reasonable score. Only once in the season was this achieved: in the first of the two home Tests against India, the visitors batted first and were bowled out for 243. But Bangladesh scored 242 in reply and went on to lose comfortably. Later in the season, England visited Bangladesh and won both Tests by wide margin despite some respectable scoring by the home side. Between these two home series, Bangladesh played and lost a single Test in New Zealand (see the New Zealand section). The principal domestic first-class competition, now known simply as the National Cricket League, was reorganised into two phases instead of the previous home-and-away league format. This proved controversial with the players, many of whom preferred the previous format, and the ensuing dispute delayed the start of the competition. In the first phase, the six teams played each other on a round-robin basis. The bottom two (Barisal and Sylhet) then dropped out, leaving the remaining four sides to play each other again in the second phase, although carrying forward their first-phase points. The top two sides (who proved to be Rajshahi and Chittagong) then contested a five-day final. Rajshahi won the final on first-innings lead, thus retaining the title. National Cricket League 2009/10: First Phase table P W L DWF DLF ND BatBP BowBP Pts NetRR 8 0 4 2 3 1 Rajshahi Division 5 3 1 1 0 0 19 20 67 0.142 2 Dhaka Division 5 3 0 1 1 0 6 20 56 -0.292 3 Khulna Division 5 3 2 0 0 0 8 18 50 0.102 4 Chittagong Division 5 2 2 0 1 0 5 19 42 0.094 5 Barisal Division 5 2 3 0 0 0 4 20 40 0.119 6 Sylhet Division 5 0 5 0 0 0 3 17 20 -0.261 National Cricket League 2009/10: Second Phase table P W L DWF DLF ND BatBP BowBP Pts NetRR 8 0 4 2 3 1 Rajshahi Division 8 3 2 2 1 0 24 31 89 -0.002 2 Chittagong Division 8 5 2 0 1 0 11 31 84 0.255 3 Dhaka Division 8 3 2 2 1 0 11 32 77 -0.169 4 Khulna Division 8 4 3 0 1 0 11 29 74 -0.028 FINAL: RAJSHAHI DIVISION drew with CHITTAGONG DIVISION but won the title on first innings lead. 73