5 teams confirmed for 3rd BPL
Five teams have been confirmed for the third edition of the upcoming Bangladesh Premier League (BPL).
Beximco Limited has acquired the ownership of Dhaka. The team will be named Dhaka Dynamites.
Besides, the DBL Group, Axiom Technologies Limited, I Sports and Royal Sporting Limited confirmed getting franchises in the Twenty20 tournament, which will be back in November after a two-year gap following a match-fixing scam and payment fiasco.
The DBL Group will own Chittagong Division, Axiom Technologies Limited Barisal Division. I Sports and Royal Sporting Limited, given franchises earlier, got the ownership of Rangpur and Sylhet, respectively. They had played as Rangpur Riders and Sylhet Royals in the past, and are likely to retain the same names in the third edition also.
Rangpur Riders and Sylhet Royals are the only ones among the seven old team owners who have kept their names in the fray by clearing outstanding amounts of the previous two editions.
The other five, however, have provided the required bank guarantee and pay-order worth Tk 5.50 crore to become outright eligible for the tournament.
Ismail Haidar Mallick, member secretary of the BPL governing council, said yesterday that the ensuing edition of the BPL will be held with six teams. While five have already been finalised, the other one will be fixed soon, claimed Mallick. The month-long tournament, slated to begin on November 25, will be held under a new payment structure. The player-by-choice system is being adopted to help the team owners clear players payment with ease.
Under the system, the team owners will pick their choice of players from different categories. The teams will first have to take part in a lottery to determine their calling number in each of the rounds for every category. In each round, the team that drew first in the lottery will have the first choice of players.
The BPL governing council will make categories A, B and C where the prices will be fixed. The council will not stop anyone from taking players from outside the list. If anyone wants to bring more foreign players, the owner will pay the players, not the BCB. n
