Bangladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hasan termed the just concluded Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League Twenty20 2022 successful for the way the local cricketers have performed.
The eighth edition of the BPL dropped the curtains Friday with Comilla Victorians finishing as the champions for the third time after defeating Fortune Barishal by a run in a nail-biter at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur.
Nazmul praised the way the local cricketers performed amid the presence of big-name overseas cricketers.
The BCB boss while speaking to the media said the performances do not mean the cricketers will get an immediate call to the national fold but it showed that the pipeline for the shortest format of the game is in good shape.
“Majority of the matches were competitive and I am happy that the local cricketers were able to make an impact. My satisfaction is that many of my players have come back to good shape since the T20 World Cup [in 2021]. My main bowler Mustafizur [Rahman] played brilliantly. Tamim [Iqbal] wasn’t scoring but now he is in super form, even Liton Das, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah had their time on the field. Nasum [Ahmed] and Shariful [Islam] bowled well. Ebadat [Hossain] doesn’t play T20 for Bangladesh but even he was impressive. We never expected the way Mehedi Hasan Miraz batted in this tournament,” said Nazmul.
It is a common thing for the BCB to term BPL the second-best franchise league in the world.
Despite the arguments, Nazmul remained true to his claim and said, “We do not have a reason to compare IPL [Indian Premier League] with our tournament. IPL cannot be compared with any T20 league around the world. But if you see the other tournaments, I think the foreign recruits that we had this season have been much more prestigious. If you compare the best of IPL players, they have played in BPL this year. This shows that BPL is of a high standard or else these players would have played elsewhere.
“I watch PSL [Pakistan Super League] too but honestly I find matches in BPL to be more interesting. Of course, this year due to the Covid-19 restrictions we could not do a majority of the activities with branding and others but if you see the moment we allowed spectators into the ground, the atmosphere changed and [in the final game] it was electrifying,” said the BCB supremo.
