BCB won�t show any tolerance about payment
Seven BPL franchisees to be named next month
Sports Reporter
Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) governing council yesterday disclosed the names of 11 new companies, which submitted their Expression of Interest (EOI) for participating in the third edition of the tournament. Countrys leading corporate house Beximco group, Mediacom of Square Group, Sohana Group of Industries, Index Group, Axiom Technologies Limited, DBL Group, BBS Cables, Bengal Communications Limited, Networld Bangladesh Limited, Fibre@ Home Limited and Blues Communications are the 11 companies who showed their interest, the tournament committee said. Afzalur Rahman Sinha, chairman of BPL governing council, revealed the names of the companies at a press meet at his office bhaban in the city after the meeting of the governing council.
He said they are determined in plugging the loopholes which created massive problems in the last two editions. The top priority for the governing council will be to ensure the players payment without any farce, Sinha said adding they will show no mercy in ensuring the bank guarantee ahead of the tournament.
Well give top-priority to those companies who are sport-oriented and real sports- lover. But weve some financial regulation which well try to meet ahead of the final agreement. The governing council thereafter will seek the bank guarantee of Tk. one crore from each company at this stage of the agreement, Sinha told the media yesterday.
BCB media committee chairman Jalal Younus, BCB tournament committee chairman Akram Khan, director Lokman Hossain Bhuiyan, BPL governing council member secretary IH Mallick and Nizam Uddin Chowdhury Shujan, CEO of BCB were also present. After scrutinising the submitted documents of the interested companies and face-to-face discussion, the board will finalise the seven companies for the seven franchisees within the first week of the next month. On behalf of BPL governing council and the board, we repeatedly said that weve financial disputes with the old franchisees. Some of them have already spent at least Tk. 7 crore and maximum Tk. 20 crore. So, we gave some requirements for them for taking part in the third version. But they dont do that. So, we dropped them at this stage, Mallick said.
Admitting the matter of discussion with some of the old franchisees, BPL member secretary said, Rajshahi, Chittagong and Rangpur sat with us regarding the disputes. But they have to settle the rest of the matter through arbitration. They firstly have to clear the all dues after which they could apply only. But that doesnt mean they would be retained. We would forward the matter to the board meeting in which it would be decided whether they could get the rights again.
As of now we dont get any guideline and instruction from the board regarding the old franchisees. So, for the time being we will work with the new franchisees, Mallick added. About Dhaka Gladiators, Mallick said, BCB has nothing to do with Dhaka Gladiators because there is an ICC instruction, where it was stated that the convicted franchisee will not participate in the league.
All payment should be made by the board. Franchisees directly paid players payments and players took it. So, there is a difference between the accounts of players and franchisees. But there are some legal claims of players. Durjoy bhai (BCB cricket operation chairman) is looking after the matter. He almost settles it. We just give these payments, said Mallick about the players payment. About TV rights, the BPL member secretary said that they have already penned a four-year contract with Channel-9. The ground work of the new edition of the BPL has already been finished with the tournament is being expected to go on from November 22-December 15.
