ACS Overseas First-Class Annual 2016

Bangladesh in 2015/16 Despite the improvement in their Test form in previous seasons, Bangladesh played not a single Test match over the 2015/16 and 2016 seasons, which hardly seemed the way to encourage support for, or skills in, the longer form of the game. As at the end of September 2016 they had played no Test matches anywhere since the rain-ruined home series against South Africa in July 2015, and none away from home since a two-Test series in the West Indies in September 2014. They thus remained in ninth place in the Test rankings throughout 2015/16 and 2016, still well ahead of last-placed Zimbabwe and, if only they were given the opportunities, not far off striking distance of eighth place. Yet enthusiasm for the game in the country seemed to grow apace, largely on the strength of the national side’s excellent performances - at home at least - in the shorter formats of the game, and above all in the 50-over version. By the end of the 2016 season Bangladesh were on an unbroken run of six successive home ODI series wins since November 2014, including series wins against Pakistan, India and South Africa. Alongside established players such as Tamim Iqbal, Shakib al Hasan and captain Mushfiqur Rahim (all of whom are still in their 20s and thus potentially have many years of cricket still to offer to the national side), one new name in particular rose to prominence - and virtually to the status of a national idol - during 2015/16: left-arm pace bowler Mustafizur Rahman (popularly ‘Fizz’). He turned 20 only in September 2015 and, if he can steer clear of significant injury, looks capable of providing the strong spearhead that the Bangladeshi attack has so conspicuously lacked at Test level over many years. Despite continuing concerns about security, which led Australia to pull out of a tour planned for October 2015, Test cricket is due to resume in Bangladesh in October 2016, and it will be of great interest to see if their success in one-day cricket will feed into continuing improvement in their record at Test level. For the sake of this cricket-mad nation, one hopes that it will. In the absence of Test cricket or even any ‘A’ team tours by other countries, first-class cricket in Bangladesh in 2015/16 consisted only of the two established domestic leagues: the Walton LED TV National Cricket League (NCL) for divisional sides, played this year in September and October, and the Bangladesh Cricket League (BCL) for zonal sides, played between January and March. The structure of both competitions was adjusted for 2015/16. In the NCL, the previous eight-team ‘all play all’ pattern was replaced by a two-tier format, with the four leading teams from 2014/15 making up Tier 1, and the other four teams Tier 2. Each side played the other teams in its tier twice, but there were no cross-tier play-offs or knock-out final rounds. This gave a total of 24 matches in the competition as compared with 28 in the previous season. On the other hand, the number of matches in the BCL increased from six to twelve, with each team playing its three rivals twice rather than once as in previous years. A further change was the reduction in both competitions of the number of points awarded for a win: previously 17 (or 16 if the winners had been behind on first innings), this figure was now reduced to 11 (or 10). This lessening of the reward for victory may have been a factor in the remarkably low number of outright wins in both competitions. There were only eight wins in the 24 NCL matches, and just three in the 12 games in the BCL, meaning that barely 30% of the first-class matches played in 2015/16 ended in a definite result. This in turn increased the relative value of the points awarded for first-innings leads in drawn games, and of the bonus points awarded for batting and bowling performances in each match. In the end it was these that were decisive in both competitions. Tier 1 of the NCL was headed by Khulna Division, who thus took the national title for the first time since 2012/13. Like two of the other three teams in the tier they won only a single match outright - but they secured more bonus points both for batting and for bowling than any of their 53