Chittagong Vikings as the last BPL franchisee team arrived in the host city of Sylhet to play their first phase games of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) fifth edition yesterday, just one day after the outset of the tournament.

The team will play two matches in their Sylhet chapter before flying back for the second phase in Dhaka, from where they began their initial practice session with the available local players since October 30. Their foreign recruit started arriving in Dhaka from November 2. Except Sikandar Raza of Zimbabwe and Najibullah Zardan of Afghanistan, all the overseas players already joined the team’s ongoing practice camp.

Of them, Najibullah Zardan joined the tent of the Vikings after being arrival in Bangladesh on Sunday. Sikandar Raza is scheduled to join in Sylhet on Monday (today).

They thereafter held a combined three-day intense training session at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) League with the participation of the local and foreign players including Luis Reece, Liam Dawson, Misbah-Ul-Haq, Luke Ronchi, Jermaine Blackwood and Jeevan Mendis prior to leave Dhaka for Sylhet.

Chittagong Vikings team manager Hasanuzzaman Jhoru told The Independent that they have landed just at the moment to open with their maiden phase in Sylhet.

“We have landed just in Sylhet from Dhaka. We’ll hold our first formal practice session at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium tomorrow as there is no schedule for matches tomorrow,” said Hasanuzzaman.

“The bulk of the overseas players meanwhile joined the team. Najibullah Zardan arrived today and Sikandar Raza will join tomorrow,” Jhoru told The Impendent.    

Chittagong Vikings will start their 2017 BPL campaign against Comilla Victorians in the first match of the third day in the blockbuster T20 tournament at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium (SICS) at 2pm tomorrow (on Tuesday).

BPL Chittagong franchisee meanwhile announced former Pakistan captain Misbah-Ul-Haq as their captain. The team will get down playing in the field under the leadership of the veteran campaigner Misbah-Ul-Haq.

In this regard, Vikings adviser Minhajul Abedin Nannu said that the team management made Misbah captain as Chittagong Vikings after consulting with their players.

“It’s right that we delayed to announce the team captain. Actually our foreign players started arriving from November 2 and then we discussed with them all along with local players and declared Misbah as Vikings captain for the BPL-5,” said Minhajul Abedin.