The 26th National Cricket League (NCL), which will have a title sponsor after a two-year gap, is set to get underway across four different venues in the country on Friday.

In Saturday's opening round matches of the eight-team league, defending champions Dhaka Division will face Sylhet Division in Khulna while Rangpur Division will take on Chattogram Division in Bogura.

In the other two matches of the day, Dhaka Metro will play Barishal Division at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium Ground-2 while Khulna Division will face Rajshahi Division at the main Sylhet stadium.

This year's competition is different from previous editions as there will be no tier system, with every team playing against each other once in a single round-robin format. The top-ranked side will be crowned champions.

Meanwhile, after the previous two editions of the NCL took place without any title sponsor, Modhumoti Bank PLC acquired the title sponsorship and ground branding rights of the first-class competition at an amount of Tk 2 crore for this season.

Modhumoti Bank, which was the title sponsor during Bangladesh's home bilateral series against Ireland last year, will also be the sponsor of the upcoming NCL T20 tournament, scheduled to start in December following the four-day league.

The title sponsor declaration was made during a press conference at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium yesterday where Modhumoti Bank DMD & Chief Risk Officer Arab Fazlur Rahman, DMD & Chief Business Officer Kamrul Hasan Khan and BCB Director Nazmul Abedeen Fahim were present.