Tournament to be named 'Bangabandhu BPL'
Image: BCB
Cf Correspondent
The Bangladesh Cricket Board announced on Wednesday that they have decided to shelve the seventh edition of the Bangladesh Premier League T20 which was scheduled to start in December this year.
Instead the BCB will hold a T20 tournament managed by the BPL Governing Council, a model similar to that of the Big Bash T20 in Australia. The T20 tournament for the season will be named after Father of the Nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to mark his 100th birthday.
The decision of changing the tournament format has however irked the cricketing arena and is being understood to be an aftermath of the conflict between the BPL GC and the existing franchises. The saga of dispute between the BPL GC and the franchises was triggered with national ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan’s move to Rangpur Riders from Dhaka Dynamites.
Following Ragspur’s announcement of signing Shakib, the BPL GC had of a sudden come hard on the franchises and had denied to acknowledge any signings of players to any team for the upcoming season of the tournament. The BPL GC had declared of setting fresh rules to start a ‘new four year cycle’ which was opposed by majority of the franchises.
BCB president Nazmul Hasan during a press meet at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Wednesday said the board could not reach a solution to the differences with the existing franchises of the tournament.
“BPL is a tough task. We are to sign fresh agreements with the franchises and we had meetings with them. Many of the franchises had a list of observations and demands. But it is not possible to meet those demands with the BPL model we currently have,” said Nazmul to the media.
“There are few franchises who also are not happy having two editions of the tournament in a same year. It is not that they do not want to participate but they have that observation. So having considered the whole situation we will have a T20 tournament managed by the board this year. No franchises will be involved in this tournament. The tournament will be funded by the board,” added the BCB boss.
Nazmul informed BPL T20 will return to action from year 2020 with a proper set of long-term plan. The plan will be worked on and released through publication.
“That way the franchises will have clear guideline of the rules and regulations and decided if they want to participate in the tournament or not,” said Nazmul.
The recent disputes between the governing body of the tournament and the franchises had resulted into series of meetings. Chittagong franchise was declared ownerless following the last edition of the tournament.
Five franchises, except for Dhaka Dynamites, had echoed similar sentiments following separate meetings with the BPL GC, to come to a solution to the disputes. The majority of the franchises had said they started preparing for the new BPL T20 season only after receiving a confirmation letter from the BCB in May this year.
The majority of the franchises in the meeting with the governing committee had demanded a direct local A+/Icon local player signing along with two direct overseas signing. The franchises had also pressed for a revenue sharing model.
Following the series of meetings the BCB and BPL GC at different times had assured of the tournament happening as planed and scheduled. There was speculation over the future of the tournament but that were also ruled out, as recent being on Sunday last, as Nazmul dusted off doubts saying the seventh edition of BPL T20 is on track as per plan.
However on Wednesday, the BCB boss informed of the board’s different set of plan and came with hard words on the franchises that intend to stay in the tournament.
