Sylhet Surma Sixers, the newest franchise of the BPL T20, have recruited middle-order batsman Nasir Hossain, wicketkeeper-batsman Nurul Hasan and spinner Taijul Islam for the fifth season of the tournament.
The side had earlier roped in hard-hitting batsman Sabbir Rahman as their Icon/A+ category cricketer.
The BPL governing council had given Sylhet the luxury of directly picking three local players from the available list in order to match the other six teams of the tournament in the players’ draft, scheduled to be held on September 16 this year.
The other six teams had already retained three cricketers from last season.
Monday was the deadline for Sylhet to submit their three local picks to the BPL GC.
Nasir last played for holder Dhaka Dynamites and recently returned to the international scene with the two-match Test series between Bangladesh and Australia.
Nurul was released by last season’s runners-up Rajshahi Kings.
Taijul meanwhile, last played for Barisal Bulls, a franchise which have been ruled out from the tournament this season after failing to meet financial terms with the BPL GC.
As far as foreign recruits are concerned, Sylhet are still settling up the office.
According to Sylhet CEO Yasir Obaid, “We are looking into a few options and are currently in discussion. As a new franchise, we are still settling down and hopefully will get a clear picture of our foreign signings as we get closer to the players’ draft.”
The Sylhet official clarified the confusion over the team’s name which is often referred to as “Sylhet Super Sixers”.
Yasir informed that they had initially come up with the name as Surma Sixers but given the guidelines set by the BPL GC regarding a team’s title, they had to shorten it to Sylhet Sixers.
“There is a lot of confusion given we have not come out to the field officially. There are speculation on the name and who we have signed as our overseas players. We will be having a press conference on Sunday where we will launch our logo, the vision and mission and all other details of the team. I hope everything will be clarified after that event,” said Yasir.
The event will be held in Sylhet with the idea that the teams belong to the people of Sylhet.
Meanwhile, the BPL GC is currently in last-minute preparation for the BPL players’ draft 2017.
Grading of the local cricketers have been done by the BPL GC after receiving list from the national selection panel.
In terms of foreign cricketers’ participation in the draft, at least 200 overseas players have registered for the draft in five categories and are waiting the BPL GC’s approval.
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