BPL looking for a way back
The dysfunctional governing council of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) has finally come up with a paper to present to the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) during the next board meeting to be held on August 26 at the headquarters of the BCB in Mirpur.
This meeting has already assumed high-profile proportions as the board is set to reduce the punishment of all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, who is serving a six-month ban from all cricket on disciplinary grounds.
But besides the issue of Shakib's punishment the board will also discuss the possibility of reviving the franchise-based BPL, which in its two editions has already created huge chaos in Bangladesh cricket, but is considered by many as a very useful competition for the betterment of the country's cricket.
“The BPL governing council had a meeting today and we made a presentation paper after a discussion to place during the next board meeting. We are very much interested in hosting the third edition of the tournament because everybody believes that we desperately need this tournament in our domestic calendar,” said governing council member secretary and BCB director IH Mallick yesterday.
“After the verdict from the tribunal one franchise (Dhaka Gladiators) is already disqualified and the remaining six franchises are defaulters. We are also owed Tk 8 to Tk 9 crore by the event management group Game On. Whether we go for legal action against them will now fully depend on the board and we tried to reflect the real situation in our paper so that the board can take a decision,” he added.
He also said that they provided the information regarding the slot for the third edition of the tournament. “There are only 15 to 20 days in December in between our international engagements. We have a slot in April next year before the home series against Pakistan and if not we have to think about it in December next year,” said Mallick.
An unexpected issue may also come to the fore regarding the captaincy of Mushfiqur Rahim, who is appointed till the 2015 World Cup, as the wicketkeeper-batsman has come under the scanner in the wake of Bangladesh's disastrous results in 2014.
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