The Bangabandhu Dhaka Premier League has ended with a positive vibe that Bangladesh Cricket Board can arrange a domestic tournament with proper bio-security bubble amid the challenging pandemic time.
The twelve-team tournament started on May 31 and ran for almost one month as it concluded on June 26. During this time all the team players, officials and associated persons stayed in selected hotels and followed bio-secure bubble procedure to tackle the covid-19 threat.
Bangladesh has been battling Covid-19 for more than a year and the surge has not gone down or controlled properly yet.
Arranging a domestic tournament with such a large number of players and officials was not an easy task, rather it was a big challenge. But Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metropolis (CCDM) have handled the situation well and managed the overall procedures with success as no Covid-19 positive report was officially found during this tournament.
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The super six stage was even telecast live in TV channels which drew much appreciation among fans as they managed to enjoy live cricket of domestic league.
The tournament was particularly relieved for the local players for whom cricket is the source of bread and butter. Due to the pandemic, last year’s DPL was halted and their source of income remained uncertain. So this tournament was a big relief for the huge number of players who are usually out of national team or BCB contracts as they can now benefit financially during this difficult pandemic time.
This season’s DPL has been held in T20 format rather than the usual 50-over format which brings a bit of good warm-up for the national team players or players who are in contention of playing World T20 this year which is scheduled to start just two months later.
Although big names of the national team have not performed with all guns blazing, but such tournament with many T20 matches will certainly give them good preparation for the upcoming T20 internationals against oppositions like Australia, New Zealand or England at home in coming months.
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The tournament was fruitful for few youngsters as they performed exceptionally well and caught the attentions of the national team selectors.
Among them few must be mentioned in the likes of opening batsman Mizanur Rahman (418 runs from 10 innings and strike rate 133.97), wicketkeeper batsman Nurul Hasan Sohan (389 run in 15 innings and strike rate 149.61), opening batsman Munim Shahriar (355 in 13 innings and strike rate 143.54), Mahmudul Hasan Joy (392 runs in 12 innings and strike rate 131.36), all-rounder Mahedi Hasan who scored 355 runs in 15 innings and also took 18 wickets in same number of innings, left-arm spinner Tanvir Islam (20 wickets in 10 innings with an economy 4.79) etc.
The most controversial incident happened in the tournament was Mohammedan Sporting Club captain Shakib al Hasan’s kick to the stumps in front of the umpire when the latter turned his appeal down against Abahani Limited. Shakib later apologized for the incident. CCDM banned Shakib for three matches and fined heavily for such kind of unsporting behavior. Prior to that Shakib also broke the bio-bubble by bringing a person from outside in his personal practice session. For that Shakib was fined too.
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The umpiring quality through the tournament was kind talk of the town among the fans. And certainly the quality of umpiring needs to be improved as on a number of occasions few decisions looked silly.
Overall the arrangement was at a satisfactory level and the most important thing is cricket is back on field ahead of a very important international fixture for Bangladesh.
And arranging this kind of domestic tournament with such volume of teams and players, officials indicates BCB are well capable of arranging such tournaments following proper protocols and procedures regarding bio-security bubbles in this Covid time.
