The ninth edition of the Bangladesh Premier League is going to start at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Friday amid severe criticism due to the multiple failures of the BPL governing council that likely to make the competition insignificant and less competitive.
Chattogram Challengers will take on Sylhet Strikers in the day’s first match at 2:30 pm, followed by the battle between Comilla Victorians and Rangpur Riders at 7:15 pm, and Nagarik TV will televise the games live.
The initial criticism emerged when the BPL governing council member secretary Ismail Haider Mallick relayed the most unexpected message that, like the past season, they are also not going to include the DRS until the eliminator round but would add an Additional Decision Review System in the League Phase ties.
That suggests an anarchic franchise T20 contention as several decisions from the umpires are anticipated to be controversial during the tournament.
Following that, former Bangladesh national team captain and Khulna Tigers head coach Khaled Mahmud chastised the competing franchises for failing to provide jerseys to their players during training sessions.
However, the scenario turned out worse when the Bangladesh Test and T20 skipper and the Fortune Barisal captain, Shakib Al Hasan, took a swipe at the governing council, terming this edition a complete mess that includes the unavailability of DRS, jersey shortage, an improper window of the tournament, registration process, and so on.
Bangladesh's former skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza also echoed Shakib on Thursday regarding the maladministration of this version of BPL.
"As Shakib stated, it is unacceptable that there is no market value for BPL. A nation with 18-20 crore people cricket is very popular, we just require the willingness.’
Even the Bangladesh Cricket Board chief executive officer on Thursday had to face ample cooked questions in this connection in their title sponsor declaration programme at the plaza centre of the SBNCS.
However, he hoped to bring back the glamour of BPL.
‘I can’t exactly explain the limitations, but we have certain limitations. It's not just for the cricket board. We have survived a global pandemic, which has presented us with a number of challenges.I am hopeful of a more exciting BPL.’
Responding to Shakib regarding their lack of willingness to create a liberal market for cricket, Nizamuudin said that all of this is happening as they have faced challenges in the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
‘It is not that we lack willingness. We have faced challenges in the last two or three years. We weren’t able to give clearance to certain teams despite their solvency this year. These are the limitations that I mean.’
