Bangladesh Premier League governing council chairman Sheikh Sohel believes that the availability of the Pakistan players would make the approaching T20 franchise tournament more competitive than the previous two versions starting on January 5, 2023.

Despite having all positive wishes, the Bangladesh Cricket Board failed to hold the last two editions of the BPL in a tantalizing manner due to the COVID-19 surge across the globe that started on March 2, 2020.

However, the forthcoming ninth edition of the BPL was also anticipated to be unexcited on the back of the unavailability of the big names across the globe due to their commitments with the other leagues like, Big Bash, UAE ILT20 and South Africa’s T20 League that clashed with the BPL fixtures.

However, the openness of the Pakistan players in the competition following the cancellation of their ODI tour to the West Indies that was scheduled to take place in the last part of January 2023, eased the BPL governing council to a large extent.

‘Yes, Pakistan players are expected to play in this edition of the BPL. In fact, we have noticed that all the seven franchises have been aiming to rope in the star overseas players in their respective sides,’ said Sohel to New Age on Wednesday.

‘Of course, their appearance would make the tournament more competitive than the early two versions, as the COVID-19 pandemic halted our ways,’ he added.

The ninth edition of BPL is scheduled to be held from January 5 to February 16, 2023.