The inaugural edition of BCB Academy Cup will get underway today with Ankur Cricket Academy taking on Clemon Indira Road Cricket Academy in the opening fixture of the knock-out format tournament at the City Club Ground in Mirpur. A total of 32 selected cricket coaching academies of Dhaka Metropolitan zone are taking part in the first edition of the tournament which is organised by the BCB Game Development Department.
Apart from the City Club Ground, Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishtan and Dhaka University Ground will also host a total of 31 matches and the final will take place on June 5.
Players, who are registered with Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metropolis and played for any club or academy in any type of domestic competition, will not be eligible to play in the tournament.
‘Obviously it is a good initiative,’ Bangladesh one-day international skipper Mashrafee bin Murtaza told reporters at a trophy unveiling programme held at National Cricket Academy on Saturday.
‘Usually we don’t see this kind of tournament. Those who don’t get opportunity to play, it’s a great chance for them,’ he added.
Mashrafee believed that they would get a big number of fresh talents from such tournaments who would get the opportunities to play for different clubs in future.
‘The more this kind of tournament will be organised, the more players will come forward. If the players can express themselves better, they may get the opportunity to play for a club or under BCB also,’ he added.
BCB games development committee chairman Khaled Mahmud was also hopeful of the success of the tournament and said that they would invite more teams from other districts in the next edition of the tournament.
‘We have a plan to make it bigger from next year,’ said Mahmud.
‘I hope that a lot of players will come forward from this tournament. We will invite two to four teams outside Dhaka to participate in the tournament next year. I think it will be a great inspiration for them whose parents are sending them to the academies,’ he added.
