Bangladesh Premier League all set to expand for fifth season

The Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) is all set to undergo some expansions for its upcoming season starting later this year. Unlike most other tournaments in the country, the Bangladesh Cricket Board has clearly laid out plans for the fifth edition of the tournament well in advance.

A ‘gorgeous’ opening ceremony is scheduled to kick-start the tournament on November 2, while the cricket will begin on November 4. On the other hand, the players’ draft is to be announced on September 16. With another five months to go before the T20 league is underway, the BPL governing council called a press conference on Thursday at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur. Chairman of the BPL governing council Afzalur Rahman Sinha and member secretary I.H. Mallick took this opportunity to share details about the upcoming tournament.

“Except for a few things we have completed all the groundwork for the next tournament. This time eight franchises will take part as Sylhet is almost set to return to the competition after a one-year break. Besides Dhaka and Chittagong, we are planning to hold some matches in Sylhet,” said Sinha, who is also a BCB director. Sinha also added that the tournament will host a total of 60 matches during the season.

As far Sylhet is concerned, Mallick was all praises for the Sylhet International Stadium’s standards. However, he did point out concerns over accommodation for the players in Sylhet. Mallick remarked that Sylhet is home to just one international standard hotel, which will pose problems for the management to house all the players.

BPL teams to be allowed 5 foreign players in playing XI

Moreover, the governing council also announced that during the upcoming edition of the BPL, teams will be able to include 5 foreign players in the playing XI. The quota for foreign players in a given XI was initially restricted to 4.

Upon being questioned about the rationale behind the increase, Mallick offered various reasons. He mentioned that some of the reasons for this change is the rise in the number of participating teams, a shortage of talented players in the country, commercial interest and last, the demand of some participating franchises.

“We are yet to take the final decision but some franchises are demanding five foreign playing members. We will finalise it later. There are both positive and negative sides in this regard, so we will make our final decision after discussing with the franchises,” Mallick concluded.