Seven franchisees warm up for BPL
Comilla to face Rsajshahi in opener Nov 4
Sports Reporter
Seven franchisees are warming up to start their campaign in the upcoming BPL-4 edition. The most glamorous cricket tournament will be held in Dhaka and Chittagong.
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has already released the full fixture and the itinerary for the BPL-4 recently.
On the other hand, BPL franchisee teams started their formal activities keeping the upcoming edition ahead as just 10 more days left for the T20 domestic tournament.
Some set up their respective teams tent for the training at different places in Dhaka and its adjacent areas. Chittagong Vikings took their position at BKSP and held their intense training session last few days. Rangpur Riders built their base at Hotel Amari Dhaka.
The team started their first practice session for the BPL-4 at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) ground with the available local players yesterday.
Under the new ownership, the team comparatively formed a balanced side with the blend of quality local and foreign players. The franchisee team, who came into discussion grabbing the much-sought player Shakib Al Hasan in the last edition, this time took Soumya Sarkar alongside Mohammad Mithun, Arafat Sunny, Rubel Hossain, Sohag Gazi, Ziaur Rahman, Naeem Islam, Elias Sunny, Pinak Ghosh, Muktar Ali, Mehrab Hossain Junior, Shabaz Chowdhury to bolster their local collection.
They also boosted up their batting and bowling line-up roping in some veteran players from Pakistan, England, Sri Lanka, the West Indies and Afghanistan. T20 specialist Shahid Afridi, Sharjeel Khan, Babar Azam, Nasir Jamshed from Pakistan, Sachithra Senanayake, Gihan Rupasinghe and Dasun Shanaka from Sri Lanka, Gidron Damien Pope of West Indies, Richard James Gleeson of England and Mohammad Shahzad of Afghanistan are in Rangpur Riders.
They began their training under the guideline of the head coach Mizanur Rahman Babul.
As per the fixture, reigning champions Comilla Victorians will lock horns with Rajshahi Kings in the opener of the T20 tournament on November 4 at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium. Rangpur Riders on the other hand will face-off Khulna Titans in days second match.
The seven participating teams are: Defending champions Comilla Victorians, last seasons runners up Barisal Bulls, Dhaka Dynamites, Rangpur Riders, Chittagong Vikings, Khulna Titans and Rajshahi Kings.
Each day two matches will be played, where the first match will be kickstarted in between 2:00pm to 5:20pm and the second match will be taken placed at 7:00m to 10:20pm. But only Fridays match will be begun at 2:30pm to 5:50pm and 7:15pm to 10:35pm.
After the end of the group phase matches on December 4, Eliminator and qualifiers matches will be held on December 6 and 7 respectively with one day break.
In the current edition, a change has been made in the eliminator and the qualifiers what was different in the previous edition. This time the eliminator will be first held, from where the defeated team will be eliminated.
Thereafter, the qualifier-1 will be held, from where the winning side will progress to the final and the defeated team will take on the winners of the eliminator in the qualifier-2.
Meanwhile, Impress and Mattra Consortium acquired the worldwide media (broadcast) rights of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) T20 Tournament for the 2017-19 editions.
Initially four companies including Gazi Satellite Television Ltd, Ardent and Mediacom Consortium, Impress and Mattra Consortium and Top of Mind had expressed their interests in obtaining the worldwide media (broadcast) rights of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL).
Following the evaluation by the BPL Governing Council, Impress and Mattra Consortium came out as the highest bidder and got the rights for the 2017-19 editions.
