Cricket in Bangladesh
Start of a New Era
Bangladesh cricket has made a significant step forward by launching the first ever National Women Cricket Championship in 2007. This is also the first time in our history when women cricketers will play in any form of domestic cricket. While most of the test playing nations are regularly playing female versions of Test and One Day series, we do not even have a national women's cricket team. Limited efforts were taken to build a national team in the past, but an international side has never represented Bangladesh due mainly to lack of interest from the organizers on top of cultural difficulties. Veteran cricket coach Altaf Hossain has been making hard and solitary effort to promote women’s cricket for the last few years. Bangladesh was invited in November 2005 to take part in the second Women’s Asia Cup and around 20 cricketers were selected for a camp under the supervision of coach Altaf Hossain. After a few weeks of camping, Bangladesh finally turned down the invitation fearing that the team’s performance would not be competitive enough. In the history book, the first recorded women’s cricket match was held in 1745 and the first match between two teams representing counties was in 1811 in London. Women's Test cricket has been played since December 1934. The International Women's Cricket Council was formed in 1958 to coordinate women's cricket which was officially integrated with International Cricket Council in 2005 after the eighth Women’s World Cup in South Africa which was won by Australia. Following women cricket teams have been awarded Test status by International Cricket Council to date: Australia, England, India , Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa , Sri Lanka and West Indies. Curiously, Ireland and Netherlands are women Test playing nations while they are yet to gain Test status in the men’s version. Women One Day Internationals are played since 1973 and the first ever Women’s Cricket World Cup was held in the same year in England in which the host emerged as champion. In addition to the above mentioned nations, Denmark, Japan and Scotland also have been awarded One Day status . Only Bangladesh and Zimbabwe are the two Test playing nations who do not play either Test or One Day cricket in the women’s version of the game. Recently Zimbabwe won the Women's World Cup Qualifiers – Africa region, to reach the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup Qualifying Tournament 2007 (WCWCQT) in Pakistan. 
Jubilant Bhola cricketers
Bangladesh Cricket Board is expected to form a national cricket team out of the top 30 performers of the maiden championship. Ten teams have participated in the opening tourney in two groups. Group A: Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna, Ansar, Narayanganj. Group B: Bhola, Rajshahi, Jahangirnagar University, Bogra, Rangamati.
Amid huge enthusiasm, the opening ceremony of the tournament was held on 27th January 2007 at Mirpur Sher E Bangla National Stadium. Women cricketers showed good cricketing skills and were very enthusiastic on and off the field. Bhola, Dhaka, Jahangir Nagar University and Khulna reached to the semifinals. Bhola and Khulna were the winners over Dhaka and Jahangir Nagar University respectively to reach the final which was held on 5th February 2007 at Mirpur Stadium. Bhola emerged as the champion defeating Khulna by 5 wickets. Now that the first step has already been taken, it is very important to take the subsequent steps with proper planning. An environment must be created so that girls from every sections of the society feel interested for the sport and regular domestic league is staged in every division if not in every district. Bangladesh Krira Shikhka Protisthan (BKSP) should also start considering a new discipline on women's cricket to nurture young talents and make them quality cricketers. Inter-University Women's Cricket Championship will promote interest as well. As Bangladesh is not receiving any ICC grant to promote women’s cricket, Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) should create its own funding and encourage sponsors to come forward. Certain religious groups might try to hinder the prospect of women’s cricket in Bangladesh, but cricket here has a deep and passionate root strong enough to keep the distractors away.