The Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) governing council officially released the local and overseas players’ name yesterday, taking the first major step of resuming the tournament after two years. The third edition of the BPL will be completely different to what it was in the past two editions, marred by payment fiasco and match-fixing scandal. The BPL governing council fixed all those issues astutely to gear up for the new venture.
The governing council released 196 overseas players name while 122 local players found their name in the list. In addition, the council revealed the six icon players’ who would be distributed among the six franchisees within a week. There was no surprise in the six icons name as Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Mahmudullah Riyad and Nasir Hossain were named as linchpin as expectedly.
Though there is no official announcement, it is learnt Shakib Al Hasan will be the icon of Dhaka Dynamites. Tamim Iqbal will belong to his home team Chittagong Vikings, Nasir Hossain will go to Rangpur Riders, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza in Comilla Victorians, Mahmudullah Riyad for Barisal Bulls and Mushfiqur Rahim in Sylhet Burners.
“We are yet to distribute the team for the icons but a decision in this regard will be made within a week,” said BPL governing council secretary IH Mallick. “We will talk to the icons to know in which team they want to play. We’ll also talk to the franchisees to know which icon they want. Then we’ll take a decision unanimously.” The icons will be involved in selecting the players when the ‘players by choice’ will be held to form a team on October 26.
“We want the icons to involve in team formation. That’s why we revealed their name and gradually we’ll announce in which team they will play,” Mallick added. While there are six icons, 16 players have been drawn in Grade A, 36, 43 and 21 are in Grade-B, C, D respectively. Among the foreign players 19 are placed in Grade A. 34, 36 and 107 are in Grade-B, C, D.
Superstars like Kumar Sangakkara, Tilkaratne Dilshan, Shahid Afridi, Thisara Perera, Chris Gayle, Kevin Pietersen will lit up the BPL, Mallick said. “As far as we are concerned, some players have already made a contract through their agent with different teams.. such as Sangakkara in Dhaka, Dilshan in Chittagong, Shoaib Malik in Comilla, Afridi in Sylhet, Gayle in Barisal. These players will not be put in lottery. The teams would reveal their actual amount to the governing council but as we said earlier we wouldn’t pay them a single penny above US$ 70000 if the franchisees didn’t pay them properly. The players also knew that, so as the franchisees.”
The highest amount for overseas Grade-A  players is US$ 70,000 when the local icon will get just Tk. 35 lakh. Most of the overseas players who are in Grade A aren’t believed to have much more star image than the local icons which created a problematic situation. Mallick explained: “I admitted that the standard of the players like Shakib, Tamim is much higher than some of the overseas Grade A players. We have talked to our icon players. For the sake of the tournament, we had to take this decision. From the next two or three years, their payment will be increased.”
A team can buy 12 foreign players, of them four are eligible to play in a match. “Yes they can field a maximum number of four overseas players in a match. We had taken this decision in order to help our players to increase their skill level.” The tournament will kick-off on November 20 with a grand opening ceremony. India artists Hrittik Roshan, Jacqulin Farnandez and local stars will lit up the opening ceremony.
The opening match will begin two days after the opening ceremony. The matches will be held in two venues- Dhaka and Chittagong. Two games will be played everyday in the double-league system tournament. Four teams will be moved to the last four where IPL-like qualifier and eliminator system will be implemented this year. The final of the tournament will be held on December 15.