Barisal's ejection leaves Fizz without a franchise

The Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) governing council has ousted franchise Barisal Bulls from this year's tournament because of a failure to comply with financial terms. Apart from reducing the field for BPL 2017 from eight franchises to seven (Sylhet is slated for a return under a new name and new ownership), the decision means that star Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman is currently without a franchise for the lucrative T20 tournament scheduled to begin in early November.

Unlike most other franchises gearing up for this season, Barisal had not reached an advanced stage in planning or forming their squad, but they did confirm Mustafizur as their icon player. And unlike previous seasons, icon players for 2017 will not be decided at the player auction but instead be left up to individual negotiations between the players and franchises.

The decision to jettison Barisal was taken at a meeting of the governing council at a club in the capital yesterday, where Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan was also present.

"Since they have not met the financial terms and conditions, we have decided not enrol them in this year's BPL," BPL governing council member-secretary IH Mallick told The Daily Star over the phone. "We had twice extended the deadline by seven days for them, and both times they failed to comply.

"We have not yet finalised it, but there will likely be an open auction where Mustafizur will be assigned a base price and the franchises will bid on him," Mallick added.

Recently, in mid-July, Barisal Bulls owner MA Awal Chowdhury made disparaging remarks about Mushfiqur Rahim, who led Barisal in 2016 and has now shifted to Rangpur Riders as its icon player for 2017.