BPL 2023: No DRS during Group Stage of upcoming edition

The forthcoming ninth edition of the Bangladesh Premier League will only have the Decision Review System (DRS) in effect from the knock-out stage and the alternative DRS with fewer checking mechanisms will again be used during the entire group stage.

Ismail Haider Mollick, BPL's governing council member secretary, revealed that there will be two other franchise competitions running parallelly to the Bangladesh Premier League and hence the availability of the DRS will be difficult for the entirety of the Bangladesh Premier League's upcoming edition.

"We will have the complete DRS system from the eliminator stage including the final and for the remaining games, we are trying to introduce alternative DRS. We will have an upgraded version of alternative DRS this time around," said Mollick as quoted by The Daily Star.

"Hawk eye technology is not available and virtual eye operates in Australia and New Zealand only. And there are a lot of matches going on around the world. Hawkeye has commitments with bilateral series which is why we will have that only from the eliminator stage," Mollick added.

Apart from the news regarding the availability of the DRS, the other piece of news that has grabbed headlines lately is that there is going to be an upsurge in the prize money associated with the tournament both at the individual and the team level.

"We are planning to give Tk 10 lakh for the Man of the Series and we are also planning to increase the prize money for the best bowler and other individual awards. The champion team will get Tk 2 crore while the runners-up will get Tk 1 crore and we have Tk 4 crore in total as the prize money," Mollick mentioned.

BPL 2023 will kick start on January 6 with a clash between defending champions Comilla Victorians and Chattogram Challengers. A total of seven teams will play in a double round-robin format with the top four teams qualifying for the knockouts.

Three venues will host all 46 matches (42 group-stage and four knockout fixtures) this season. The Shere Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur, Dhaka will host all four knockout matches, including the final on February 16. Sylhet International Cricket Stadium and Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram are the other two venues.