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The first edition of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) will kick off
on February 9, 2012 with the final to be played on February 29. The
20-day tournament will feature six teams that will play each other twice
each in a round-robin format over 33 matches to be held in Chittagong
and Dhaka.
Teams will be allowed to field five foreign players in their XIs, as
opposed to four in the IPL. Adam Gilchrist, Mathew Hayden, Kieron
Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, Kamran Akmal and James Anderson are among at
least 25 foreign players who have made themselves available for the
tournament.
"The main thing is the Bangladesh players have to be available," Arun
Lal, a consultant to Game on Sports, the tournament organisers, and also
a former India opener, told ESPNcricinfo.
As in the first season of the IPL, each team will have an icon player.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board announced yesterday that Tamim Iqbal will
be the icon player for Chittagong, Mohammad Ashraful for Dhaka, Alok
Kapali for Sylhet, Shahriar Nafees for Barisal, Mushfiqur Rahim for
Rajshahi and Shakib Al Hasan for Khulna. The players will be paid 5%
more than the amount received by the highest paid player of each
franchise.
The franchise auction will take place on January 5, either in Dhaka or
the sea-side town of Cox's Bazar. Companies wishing to bid for a
franchise will submit their offers on the same day, and bids will be
opened in front of all those present, with the franchises going to the
highest bidder. The player auction is scheduled to take place 10 days
later. Each team will have to spend a minimum of US $2 million and can
spend up to a maximum of $5 million.
The BPL will be televised on a new sports channel in Bangladesh and the
organisers are believed to be in discussions with Ten Sports to
broadcast the tournament in India. However, India's domestic 50-over
tournament begins on February 20 and therefore could restrict Indian
participation. "India is a problem," Lal said. "In the first six or
eight games, they [India players] could play."
The organisers are also hoping that the winner of the BPL will be given a place in the Champions League Twenty20 next year.
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