No window for BPL this year

The Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), the most glamorous and cash-rich cricket tournament of the country is unlikely to be held this year as the national players will be busy with their International commitment.

The unavailability of the national players during the scheduled time is the reason for not organizing the tournament this year, said the member secretary of BPL governing council Ismail Haider Mallick.

Initially the BPL was slated to be held in November-December this year but in November Bangladesh will tour in Pakistan while they will host New Zealand in December, prompting the governing council to defer the date of BPL to January next year.

“The national team may visit Pakistan in November. New Zealand will visit Bangladesh in December. It is not possible to organize BPL without the players of the national team. Therefore, the BPL Governing Council plans to hold the next BPL in January,” Mallick said here today after a meeting with the concerned persons of preparing the domestic calendar.

“We have two windows—in November and December but those were booked for the International series. It sounds negative that BPL will not be held this year. We should say the next season of BPL will be in January next year.”

The last BPL was held in 2018. BCB launched a special BPL in 2019 to celebrate the birth centenary of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Raham, excluding the existing franchisees. The tournament was held with the sponsorship of the teams. After successfully organizing the tournament, the BCB decided to name the franchise-based tournament permanently as Bangabandhu BPL.

Mallick further said they are yet to finalize the calendar of the domestic cricket but they are in good progress. “We had a meeting twice regarding the calendar of domestic cricket. Our national team will remain busy throughout the year and so we had to consider all the things,” he said, “We have DPL, NCL, BCL and BPL.

As per the initial decision, NCL will be held in March and with this the domestic cricket will restart after Covid-19 pandemic. We will organize DPL in May.”

Source: BSS