PCL gains momentum

Managing director of Habib Group Yeasin Ali (L) unveils the logo of the PCL Twenty20 championship at the Chittagong Divisional Stadium yesterday. The PCL involving eight franchises mostly based in the port city will commence on May 2.Photo: STAR

Preparations for the PCL (Port City League), set to be kicked off on May 2, stepped up further yesterday with the signing of title sponsor agreement with a prominent business group.
Habib Group came forward to buy the title sponsorship in exchange of Tk 20 lakh.
The organisers set a budget of Tk 1,40,00,000 for the Twenty20 tournament and so far received confirmation of Tk 70 lakh from the sponsors.
Besides Habib Group and Taher Group, who agreed to give Tk 10 lakh, there are many sponsors like Inter Sports, Meridian Hotel, Asian SR Hotel, UCBL, Karnaphuli Guest House and Chittagong Club who all have come forward with medium amounts.
A list of 48 players to be auctioned in five different categories was announced with Tigers opener Tamim Iqbal and left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak in the A+ grade with a floor price of Tk 30,000.
Players like national opener Imrul Kayes, Zunaed Siddiqui, Mehrab Hossain, Rokibul Hasan, Shahadat Hossain, Syed Rasel, Nazmul Hossain Mahbubul Alam, Rubel Hossain, Mahmudullah Riyad and Nayeem Islam have been placed in A grade with the floor price of Tk 20,000.
For A- grade the floor price is Tk 15,000, B+ grade Tk 10,000 and B grade Tk 8,000.
The auction will be held at the Karnaphuli Resort on April 25 and the bidding opens at 11:00am.
The agreement signing ceremony of the title sponsorship took place at the office of Chittagong Divisional Krira Sangstha (CDKS) yesterday in presence of a large number of sports organisers, government officials, media people and some other PCL sponsors.
Chittagong Divisional Commissioner and CDKS president MAN Siddique, Deputy Commissioner Fariduddin Ahmed Chowdhury and Habib Group director Salman Habib signed the agreement on behalf of their respective sides.
"Someone has to take sort of responsibility to boost up sports and come forward with financial assistance to this end. So, we thought this was the right time to step in," said Yeasin Ali, managing director of Habib Group.
"The list of sponsors will hopefully get large in next few days and different companies have already shown keen interest in the tournament," said CDKS vice-president Ali Abbas.
Chittagong Mohammedan, Chittagong Abahani, Chittagong Brothers Union, Ispahani Group, Continental Group, Noakhali Top Sports and Laxmipur Dhaka Sports have already confirmed their participation. Another team from Dhaka might fill up the other spot in the eight-team competition.
Considering the acute power crisis, most of the matches of the eight-day tournament would be held in daytime while four matches -- the opening game, two semifinals and the final -- and the opening ceremony may be played under lights at the Chittagong MA Aziz Stadium.
The four day-night matches will be telecast live by private satellite channel ATN Bangla.
Organisers said the champions would get a prize money of Tk 15 lakh while the runners-up will receive Tk 5 lakh. The man-of-the-match will get an attractive amount.
Some foreign players are expected to add to the glamour and Chittagong Mohammedan Sporting Club have already confirmed at least two Pakistani cricketers Kamran Hossain of Habib Bank and Kaiser Abbas of Sialkot Club.
Each team will be allowed to include three foreign cricketers.