DPL T20 proved to be gold for local players
DPL T20. -Cricfrenzy
||CF Correspondent||
The local players revealed that the Dhaka Premier League (DPL) T20 tournament came as good for them to understand the nature of the format in which the Bangladeshi players proved them vulnerable time and again.
There was enormous pressure on the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) to launch such a tournament which could give the local players a chance to thrive in this format.
Bangladesh had launched a BPL T20 tournament in 2012 to understand the nature of the format but it didn’t deliver any goods, vastly because of the fact that the local players remained under the shadow of world-class foreign players.
Moreover, most of the local players didn’t get the chance to make it the final XI regularly as the team can pick up four overseas players. In the 2017-18 season, the BPL franchisees got the luxury of even picking up five overseas players in the final XI.
Therefore voice was raising high to unleash a T20 tournament exclusive for the local players. The Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metropolis (CCDM), the guardian of the clubs of Dhaka finally got the opportunity to launch this tournament ahead of the 50-over format of Dhaka Premier League in this season.
“It came as a quite good for the local players,” said Prime Doleshwar captain Farhad Reza, who himself gained much from this tournament.
Reza, a player of Rangpur Riders in BPL didn’t get much opportunity to play all matches for the side because the franchisees had some power-hitters of the world like Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Alex Hales, Rilee Rossouw and local superstars like Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Mohammad Mithun and others in the team.
“We didn’t get enough chance to play the matches in BPL. The foreigners mainly dominated the BPL. But if you can’t play at least 10/15 matches in this format throughout the year, how can you understand the nature of the format,” Reza questioned.
“So it’s a good tournament for me on the personal ground and for all local players. I think performance in this tournament will give us more exposure in BPL too,” he said.
Reza was the revelation of the tournament also for his improved death over bowling, alongside his attacking batting lower down the order. He credited Shrinivas Chandrasekaran, the analyst of Rangpur Riders for this revolution. “He helped me a lot in this aspect when I was in the Rangpur Riders team. So credit goes to him,” he added.
Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club captain Nurul Hasan also echoed the sentiment of Farhad Reza. “In India, there is a lot of T20 tournaments for their local players. They graduated there in this format and played well in IPL and other International T20 matches,” Hasan said.
“Finally we also got such sort of tournament for exclusive the local players. It is always tough to play all matches in BPL because every franchise wants to win the trophy so they emphasized on foreign players to bolster their top order or bowling side. As we have now this sort of tournament, I hope our players will also thrive in this format,” the captain concluded.
