Bangladesh Premier League Twenty20, a tournament which gave us many positives yet provided Bangladesh cricket with a few unforgettable nightmares as well, was officially launched last Thursday with the blockbuster players’ draft ceremony.
The battle between the six franchises will commence on the field on November 22 and it will be preceded by an extravagant opening ceremony on November 20 that will be graced by the presence of a couple of Bollywood stars.
However, compared to the previous two editions, the upcoming third edition of the cash-rich T20 competition will be monitored more closely by the media due to obvious reasons. The second edition of the tournament, held in 2013, was filled with spot- and match-fixing controversies and to make matters worse, Bangladesh cricket lost one of its most talented cricketers in former captain Mohammad Ashraful.
It did not stop there. Former Bangladesh spinner Shariful Haque was banned for life for a similar offence while local cricketers Mosharraf Hossain and Mahbubul Alam, along with English player Darren Stevens and Sri Lankan spinner Kaushal Lokuarachchi were also accused of wrongdoing but none of the quartet were punished following investigations.
Both Mosharraf and Stevens soon returned to action and will take part in BPL 3 for Dhaka Dynamites and Comilla Victorians respectively.
This time around however, the Bangladesh Cricket Board has left no stones unturned. In order to monitor any potential fixing approach in the forthcoming edition of the money-spinning tournament, the BCB has decided to appoint its own anti-corruption and security unit, informed BPL member secretary Ismail Haider Mallick.
Although the BCB must be lauded for its brave efforts in handling corruption two years ago, the governing body of cricket in the country will have to be more alert with BPL 3 less than a month away.
Another important issue which arrived as a bodyblow and hampered the image of Bangladesh cricket was the irregularity in the players’ payment. The previous franchise owners created headlines, albeit for all the wrong reasons, around the cricketing world as several well-known players, and vice versa, went unpaid for a long duration.
And despite the BCB putting a cap on the salary structure this time, there are still questions lingering over the icon players’ payment. Many have expressed disappointment with the huge gap between the icon cricketers (Tk35 lakh) and foreign cricketers ($70,000)
Moving on, BPL 3 will also be very significant for the board after Cricket Australia cancelled its tour of Bangladesh earlier this month owing to security concerns. The BCB will be desperate to prove to the world that Bangladesh is indeed safe for any international sport, especially cricket.
To add to that, the young and aspiring cricketers will also be looking forward to the tournament as it gives them the opportunity to share the dressing room with some of their heroes.
As far as international cricket is concerned, it goes beyond saying that the Tigers benefited a lot from the T20 competition. Bangladesh played exceptionally well right after the conclusion of the inaugural BPL season in 2012 when the Tigers reached the final of the Asia Cup for the very first time.
Putting aside all the negatives and positives, both the BPL governing council and the BCB will no doubt be hoping for an eye-catching tournament this time around. Time will tell whether they will be successful in their pursuit but one thing is for sure, the competition will not be short of action.
