The Bangladesh Cricket Board, it seems, will settle with six franchises for the third edition of the Bangladesh Premier League, confirmed sources. The money-spinning Twenty20 league earlier came to a halt after the controversial second edition in 2013.
BCB had earlier confirmed Beximco Group as the new owners of Dhaka while sources revealed Royal Sporting Ltd (Sylhet), Axiom Group (Barisal) and DBL Group (Chittagong), I-Sport Ltd (Rangpur) as the other franchises. The sixth franchise has not been locked yet as the question remains as to which Division – Rajshahi or Khulna – will be left out in the case of a six-team tournament.
However, the response wasn’t so poor in the initial stage of the plan which even made the BCB dream of an eight to 10 team tournament. 11 companies had purchased the Expression of Interest while previous owners of Rangpur (Flora Ltd), Khulna (I-Sports) and Sylhet (Royal Sporting) also cleared their dues in order to bid for a team.
But the interest gradually decreased as the BCB is now content with six franchises, one less than the previous edition.
