Dhaka Premier League to bring back controversial player-by-choice transfer system

The Dhaka Premier League (DPL) is all set to re-introduce the controversial player-by-choice transfer system for the forthcoming edition of the country’s premier club based 50-over tournament. Kazi Inam, the newly-appointed chairman of Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metropolis (CCDM), a wing of the BCB with the responsibility of running the tournament, announced it after a meeting with the club officials.

The announcement comes less than a week after the culmination of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), where BCB allowed as many as five foreign players in the playing eleven of each franchise. Teams relied mostly on their foreign recruits to win the game, which in turn reduced the worth of local players significantly.

The lottery-based transfer system was introduced by BCB for the first time in 2013 but announced that they would not use the system any further. However, the concept was brought back in the 2015-16 edition of the tournament. Clubs wanted the return of the process due to exorbitant payment demands from the top players during that time but the rule was shelved for the previous edition of the tournament.

Details of the process

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, CCDM chairman Inam was quoted saying, “We have planned to hold the transfer in ‘players by-choice’ system this season. Some clubs requested us in this regard and they have a point.”

He added, “We considered that the national players will not be available this season as the league will be held in January-February. Clubs will be given a chance to retain four players,” he said.

Just like the process maintained in the first edition when it was introduced, once the top-category players are assigned to the clubs, 11 players have to be picked from the next five categories (A, B+, B, C, and D). Each club can recruit a maximum of two players from category A, three from B+, four from B, three from C, four from D and four from E. At least one player should be picked from category E.