The Bangladesh Cricket League was inaugurated in the 2012-13 season as a four-team first-class tournament comprising the best-performing players from the eight-team National Cricket League. The aim was to raise the level of the nation's top first-class competition and so prepare players better for Test cricket. The BCL consists of four zonal teams, each made up of players from teams representing two adjacent regions in the NCL. The teams are as follows:
Each team is owned and officially named as a franchise: Islami BankEast Zone, for example. The matches are played on a limited number of nominally neutral grounds, without home and away matches.
There was no final. Matches took place in April and May 2015, at Fatullah and Mirpur and Chittagong. The highest scorer was Alok Kapali and the leading wicket-taker was Abdur Razzak . In April 2015, the BCL staged a One-Day League, which was won by East Zone.
2015-16
There was no final. Instead of a single round-robin, as in previous years, a double round-robin was held from mid-January to mid-March 2016. Matches were played at Rajshahi and Bogra, Cox's Bazar, and Mirpur and Fatullah. The highest scorer was Marshall Ayub, with 562 runs at 56.20, while Abdur Razzak took the most wickets, 38 at 32.15.
2016-17
Team
Played
Won
Drawn
Lost
Points
North Zone
6
2
4
0
22
South Zone
6
1
5
0
16
East Zone
6
1
3
2
13
Central Zone
6
1
2
3
10
A double round-robin was held from late January to early March 2017. The highest scorer was Tushar Imran, with 731 runs at 91.37, while Sunzamul Islam, 25 wickets at 26.44, and Shuvagata Hom, 25 at 26.92, took the most wickets. Sunzamul Islam took 9 for 80, a competition record, in the second innings against Central Zone at Chittagong.
2017-18
Team
Played
Won
Drawn
Lost
Points
South Zone
6
1
5
0
65
North Zone
6
2
3
1
62
East Zone
6
0
5
1
52
Central Zone
6
0
5
1
51
The first three rounds were played in January 2018, and the last three in April, split by the 2017-18 season of the Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League. The highest scorer was Liton Das, with 779 runs at 97.37, while Abdur Razzak was the leading wicket-taker with 43 wickets at 25.00. Both totals were new records for the competition.
2018-19
Team
Played
Won
Drawn
Lost
Points
South Zone
6
2
3
1
31.88
East Zone
6
1
5
0
29.14
Central Zone
6
1
3
2
23.37
North Zone
6
0
5
1
18.61
The tournament was played in November and December 2018. The highest scorer was Anamul Haque, with 658 runs at 65.80, while Abdur Razzak was once again the leading wicket-taker with 34 wickets at 24.88.
2019-20
Team
Played
Won
Drawn
Lost
Points
East Zone
3
2
0
1
23.47
South Zone
3
1
2
0
19.89
Central Zone
3
1
1
1
11.50
North Zone
3
0
1
2
6.22
In the final, South Zone beat East Zone by 105 runs. The tournament was played from late January to late February 2020. The highest scorer was again Anamul Haque, with 501 runs, while Abdur Razzak was once again the leading wicket-taker with 22 wickets.
