‘We consider BPL a developmental tournament’

Since its introduction in 2012, the cash-rich Bangladesh Premier League has made headlines due to glitz, glamour and myriad controversies. Influential Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) director Ismail Haider Mallick, also a member secretary of the BPL governing council, spoke to The Daily Star's Mazhar Uddin about the reasons behind the stunted growth of the franchise-based T20 tournament, the obstacles in the way and how to improve in the future. The excerpts are below:

The Daily Star (DS): Tell us about the journey of BPL since its introduction in 2012.

Ismail Haider Mallick (IM): We came to the board after the first edition of the BPL and what we faced most were non-payment issues. Franchises were not paying the players and the board was supposed to get Tk 30 crore from those who organised the event. Then the board formed a commission and found out that they were still owed Tk 52 crore. The model back then was different. The board used to take money from the franchises and then they were supposed to pay the franchises. But no party got the money. Then we went for a settlement of Tk 25 crore but we were unable to recover that as well.

Then we decided to dissolve the financial structure and opt for a different structure for the second edition. We formed new franchises but none of the old franchises were able to continue beyond the third edition. That financial model did not match the context of Bangladesh's economical structure and was never viable. We call the BPL a headache because every edition you will hear about non-payment issues. But at one point between 2015 to 2017, we truly created hype. But since the pandemic, there has been a break but we still arranged a special edition.

DS: The franchises asked for a revenue-sharing model just before the special edition in 2019…

IM: If we want to share revenue, we have to return to the model from the inaugural edition. We have to increase franchise fees. The board's initial aim was to make this BPL a revenue-generating tournament, but we are not on that trajectory. Yes, the BPL generates money for us each year. But because this is the only T20 tournament in our calendar, we want to make it the platform for new players to get international exposure as well as a way to give other local resources such as coaches, umpires, groundsmen and even the security team that exposure. If we talk about Mustafizur [Rahman] or Soumya [Sarkar], they came after getting exposure in the BPL like many others. We consider BPL a developmental tournament.

DS: Why are there always complaints about poor pitches in the BPL?

IM: We are suffering in terms of pitches. If you ask me as a member of the BPL governing council, we are not happy with the type of T20 pitches in Bangladesh. The grounds department is trying its best but to maintain a good pitch we can't have more than 40 days of cricket on the same ground each year. But we have over 200 days of cricket because we have to play a majority of matches in Mirpur, Chattogram or Sylhet.

DS: Do you think BPL has hit the heights it was destined to?

IM: No, we couldn't. Frankly, the hype we had during the third, fourth and fifth editions is not the same as now. As I said, we had a gap in the middle and non-payment issues have surely tarnished its image. But I think we can eventually get there if we develop infrastructure and go for a long-term agreement with franchises once we get a proper timeslot. This is only the BCB's part, the franchises should also prepare long-term plans.