Bangladesh Cricket Board commences domestic tournament dreaming women team's Test debut

The International Cricket Council (ICC) provided Test and ODI status permanently to all their full-member women's teams. But Bangladesh women are yet to play their first Test whereas the likes of India, Australia, England, South Africa and New Zealand have time and again featured in the longer format over the years. 

With women’s cricket focusing on Tests too, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has decided to launch a first-class competition for women from December 21 in Rajshahi. This move comes in the ake of creating a conducive atmosphere for the Bangladesh women’s team to play the longer format at the international level.

"If we want to play Tests, we need to play first-class matches and so you can say this is our first step towards that direction. I think our girls need to adapt to three-day cricket if they want to play a longer version at the international level and if they can continue to develop in this format, surely we will be able to compete in Test cricket. But for that, we need to prepare ourselves and this WBCL will certainly help us to prepare," BCB's women's wing head Habibul Bashar told Cricbuzz.

Bangladesh were provided Test status in 2021

The Women's Bangladesh Cricket League (WBCL) will see four teams, such as South, North, East and Central, take on each other in four rounds of three-day matches. South will take on East while Central will play North in the opening round of the tournament. The games for the second round are scheduled from December 26-28, in which South will take on North while Central will take on East. 

Meanwhile, the Bangladesh women's team will be in West Indies. And the remaining two rounds of the domestic tournament will resume once the national team is back. It is worth noting that Bangladesh women were provided Test status in 2021 along with Afghanistan and Zimbabwe. Surprisingly, they have not been featured in a single Test for almost three years now.