5 franchisees sign deals

A two-party agreement between the Bangladesh Premier League's (BPL) governing council and five out of the seven franchisees of the league was signed at the Bangladesh Cricket Board's (BCB) headquarters in Mirpur yesterday.
Member-secretary of the governing council, Dr IH Mallick, revealed this latest development but was unwilling to divulge any further details regarding the deal; those details will be revealed at a press conference that will take place upon the arrival from England of the board's president Nazmul Hassan Papon.
The deal represented the first 'official' agreement between the two parties. “It was a revised version of the proposal given to us before last year's BPL,” said Salim Chowdhury, owner of Dhaka Gladiators.
As per the agreement the franchisees would continue paying their yearly fee for 12 years, after which the owners would have to pay a portion of their revenue to the council. “In my case, I'll have to pay 1.05 million dollars to the board every year for 12 years. After that period gets over I have to pay 20 per cent of our revenue to the board,” said Chowdhury. “Before this agreement, most of the deals were made in good faith,” he added.
Sameer Quader Chowdhury, owner of the Chittagong Kings also signed the agreement and the franchisee owner, similarly, has to pay a yearly fee of 1.2 million dollars. Apart from the Kings and the Gladiators, the three other franchisees who signed the agreement were Rangpur Riders, Khulna Royal Bengals and Duronto Rajshahi. Barisal Burners and Sylhet Royals were the two franchisees that did not sign.
The board however remains in its previous stance with regard to the players' payment. The franchisees have been asked to submit a bank guarantee -- for the foreign players' payments within seven days, and 14 days for the local players -- to the council by next week. The failure to do so, according to chairman Afzalur Rahman Sinha, would lead to the board taking 'strong action' against the team.
While the agreement does bring most of the franchisees within the 'official circle', it however reportedly hadn't addressed the players' payment issue. “There were no agreements regarding the players' payment in this deal,” informed Sameer Quader Chowdhury.