When BPL turned into street cricket
There is a great love of street or neighbourhood cricket in Bangladesh; in the absence of robust grassroots structures budding cricketers get together with their neighbours to form teams and play tournaments. A word in the Bangla language -- jora tali (roughly translated: hastily put together) -- best describes such tournaments as they are often hastily put together and the rules are made up as they go along. But this love seems to have been taken a bit too far as the Bangladesh Premier League, the tournament that local administrators tout as the 'most popular after the IPL', seems to run on the same principles despite truckloads of money and resources going into the planning and staging of the event*.
Along with Sunday's farcical continuation of the second Qualifier between Comilla Victorians and Rangpur Riders after rain rendered further play on the day impossible, despite the tournament bylaws saying that the higher ranked team will go through and there will be no reserve day, we take a look at three previous instances when the BPL's mask of organised cricket slipped and revealed the jora tali nature of the tournament.
Inaugural edition (2012): Five semifinalists
At the end of the league stage of the inaugural edition of the BPL, Dhaka Gladiators, Duronto Rajshahi and Khulna Royal Bengals were through as the top three teams. The fourth team, Barisal Burners was named at 2:45 am on the morning of the match. This, after the then BPL governing council chairman Gazi Ashraf Hossain had said that according to the bylaws, Chittagong Kings were the fourth team through to the semifinals. Brad Hodge, Barisal's captain, reportedly had to come back from the airport to participate in the match.
Chittagong, Barisal and Dhaka were on equal points and Dhaka had gone through because they beat Barisal twice and had a 1-1 head-to-head record with Chittagong as well as the best net run rate of the three. But Barisal and Chittagong had a 1-1 head-to-head record, so originally, because Chittagong had one more victory than Barisal in the three-way tie, they were said to have gone through. But something happened late at night, and Barisal were asked to go through because of a superior net run rate. It is quite futile to ask what was in the bylaws, because that in the BPL has become a byword for meaningless.
BPL 2015: Toss awaits NOCs
The toss of the 2015 league match between Chittagong Vikings and Sylhet Superstars was delayed by 25 minutes. The umpires initially informed Chittagong captain Tamim Iqbal that there will be a 10-minute delay because two of Sylhet's foreign players were yet to submit their no objection certificates [NOCs] from their home boards. When the toss did happen, the Sylhet team sheet had two foreign players, but when Tamim went out to open he saw four foreigners on the field, leading to a further delay, but the match did go on because, well, BPL.
BPL 2016: Reboot and restart
The 2016 BPL was supposed to start on November 4, but rain had washed out the opening day's matches. With rain forecast for the next two days, the governing council decided to call off matches scheduled for November 5 and 6 as well, and the rest of the franchises had to fall in line. The result: a congested schedule that took away from the competitiveness of the tournament.
And last, but not least...
The bylaws, as released by the governing council last night, in the event of a playoff match not being completed due to weather and a Super Over not being possible because of the same reason, the higher ranked team at the end of the group stage will go through. That meant Comilla Victorians should have gone through as play was not possible on Sunday and a Super Over was not played despite the cut-off time being extended from 9:30pm to 11:30pm. And if a team declines to play the Super Over, the match will be awarded to the opposition. There is also no provision for a reserve day.
After much hullaballoo, the governing council's email laid out the laws and at the end, it said: "However, management of both teams agreed to resume play on the following day in the greater interest of the tournament and in the spirit of the game."
In other words, the council itself admits that the bylaws mean nothing when the management of the teams got involved.
*We apologise for the comparison to neighbourhood tournaments, many of which maintain a strict adherence to the rules.