The Bangladesh Cricket Board has moved quickly to fill an unexpected gap in the country’s calendar, launching a new short-format competition after Bangladesh was barred from taking part in the T20 World Cup.

The tournament, titled the Odommo Bangladesh T20 Cup, began on February 5 and is being staged at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka. It is a three-team event, designed to bring together the country’s leading cricketers at a moment when they are not playing international cricket at the global tournament.

Litton Das will captain Dhumketu XI, Najmul Hossain Shanto will lead Durbar XI, and Akbar Ali will take charge of Duronto XI. Each side will play the others once in a round-robin format, with matches scheduled across February 5, 6 and 7. The top two teams will then meet in the final on February 9.

The BCB has also chosen this event to introduce an impact player rule, marking the first time it will be used in an official match in Bangladesh. Under the rule, one player from the starting XI can be substituted at any point in the match for a twelfth player, selected from a list announced at the toss.

According to a BCB press release, the tournament has been granted official T20 status and will carry total prize money and fees worth Tk 2.5 crore (approximately USD 204,504).

The backdrop to the competition is unusually tense. Bangladesh’s leading players are missing the T20 World Cup after the Bangladesh government barred them from travelling to India. Some players have voiced concern about missing the tournament, without fully detailing what was said during a meeting with government officials on January 24.

Bangladesh’s participation became uncertain when sports adviser Asif Nazrul said the team would not travel to India, a situation that escalated after the BCCI withdrew Mustafizur Rahman from the IPL. Three weeks later, the ICC named Scotland as Bangladesh’s replacement after negotiations with Bangladesh did not resolve the issue.

The domestic schedule, too, has been light. The Dhaka leagues have faced boycotts from several teams, and the Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League has not taken place so far in the 2025–26 season.

For now, the BCB is leaning on a compact tournament to keep its top cricketers playing, even as the wider situation around Bangladesh’s absence from the World Cup continues to shape the season at home.