Bashar's team Khulna take on defending champions Rajshahi at the Rajshahi Divisional Stadium while Nafees's Barisal face Dhaka at the Fatullah Stadium and Chittagong take on Sylhet in the opening four-day fixtures of the country's lone first-class competition.

The Tigers will only be allowed to play the first two rounds before they are off for their final preparation ahead of the five-match one-day series against Zimbabwe, who will arrive in Dhaka on November 23.

"True, the national players have to play the first two rounds as per BCB's (Bangladesh Cricket Board) directions but we have decided not to play the first round because of injury. I am nursing my tennis elbow which will not make it possible to travel to Rajshahi," informed Bashar, who smashed back-to-back half-centuries to help Acme lift their maiden Corporate Cricket League title.

He, however, said that this year's home and away basis longer-version matches will be very important for them as they are out of Test cricket since last April and will only be back in November next year.

"Now everybody can understand that domestic cricket is very important to rectify the mistakes. I hope players take the competition seriously because there is a lot of room in four-day game to improve performance," he added.

The tournament committee has brought only one change in this year's event as the one-day competition will be held after the completion of the four-day competitions.

"We made the change to fulfil the players' demand. We believe that it will bring excitement, especially in the one-day competition," said Shah Nurul Kabir Shaheen, BCB vice-president and chairman of the tournament committee, while addressing a press conference yesterday.

He also informed that sponsor Ispahani has agreed to give Tk 30 lakhs, which is Tk 10 lakhs more than the previous year, out of a total budget of Tk 1.7 crore.

"We also improved the amount of preparation money, daily allowance and travel allowance for the participating teams and players," he added.

The preparation money for each team has been increased to Tk 250,000 from last year's Tk 200,000 while the daily allowance for each player has been raised to Tk 800 from Tk 400 and the travel allowance increased to Tk 500 from Tk 300.

Shaheen also said that the board has taken initiative to ensure national players' participation in the country's lone first-class competition.

"The national players under the board's payroll would have to play the league except if anyone is declared unfit by the physio and we will punish those who refuse to play," he assured.

Managing Director of sponsors MM Ispahani Limited Mirza Salman Behrouz Ispahani also spoke on the occasion.

"It is the successive sixth occasion that Ispahani Limited are sponsoring the National Cricket League and we hoped that the tournament would be a successful one," he said.