The ninth edition of the Bangladesh Premier League, the franchise-based Twenty20 tournament, is set to kick off Friday amid the absence of Decision Review System.
The first phase of the month-long tournament will start in Dhaka before shifting to Chittagong and Sylhet and returning to the capital city in mid-February for the business stage.
The glittering tournament is facing severe criticism over several issues and one of the most talked about was the absence of DRS from the beginning as it was announced earlier that the technology will be available only from the knockouts.
Bangladesh Test and T20I captain Shakib al Hasan heavily criticized the BPL and also expressed frustration at the absence of DRS.
Comilla Victorians coach Mohammad Salahuddin also raised the board's lack of willingness to introduce DRS from the beginning.
"Our production team informed us about this (DRS) two/three months ago. After that we tried our best to bring DRS. We have also contacted the ICC about this. But for some reason it was not possible to bring. Several international tournaments are going on at the same time. Some franchise leagues are also running. Due to these reasons, we could not bring DRS," said Bangladesh Cricket Board CEO Nizamuddin Chowdhury on the eve of the tournament.
Along with the BPL, CSA T20 in South Africa (from January 10) and the ILT20 in Abu Dhabi (from January 13) will also be held simultaneously.
Although these tournaments will be held for the first time, DRS is likely to be there.
But BPL, which is running its ninth season this time, could not manage to arrange DRS, frustrating the players and officials a great deal.
Nizamuddin admitted the limitations and shortcomings of BPL.
"We definitely had limitations here. Due to which our production house could not bring it. We also tried hard enough on our part after knowing this. But currently those who provide DRS services do not have enough manpower," he added.
However, amid the issues, BPL will start with two matches - Chattogram Challengers will take on Sylhet Strikers in the first match of the day, starting at 2:30pm, and Comilla Victorians will face Rangpur Riders in the second game at 7:15pm.
But weekday matches and those on Saturday will start from 2pm and 7pm.
