The Bangladesh cricket board is all set to launch a first-class competition for women from December 21 in Rajshahi to keep the hope alive for the women's team's Test debut. The Women's Bangladesh Cricket League (WBCL) will include four teams - South, North, East and Central, who will take on each other in four rounds of three-day matches as well.

Four teams will feature in the tournament

South will play against East while Central will take on North in the opening round, scheduled at two venues in Rajshahi as well. In the second round of games slated to take place from December 26-28, South will play against North while Central will be placed East. The other two rounds will take place following the return of the Bangladesh women's team from West Indies as well.

However, Bangladesh women were granted Test status alongside Afghanistan and Zimbabwe in 2021 after the International Cricket Council (ICC) decided to give all their full-member Women's teams Test and ODI status permanently as well. Meanwhile, the Bangladesh women's team is yet to play Tests as they play only white-ball cricket.

BCB's women's wing head Habibul Bashar said to Cricbuzz on Thursday (December 12) that they are aiming to launch the three-day competition for women with the hope of Test cricket.

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"I think our girls need to adapt with three day cricket" - Habibul Bashar

"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," said Habibul.

However, the maiden WBCL was played in 2023 as a two-day tournament but this time, the have decided to see how they perform in a three-day match as well.

"I think our girls need to adapt with three day cricket if they want to play longer version at 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," Habibul said.