Occasions have been many in the past when the Bangladesh Premier League T20 governing council sparked a dispute with the franchises of the money-spinning tournament over controversial decisions.
There is a hand-book mentioning the playing conditions of the tournament but despite running into its sixth edition this year, the tournament committee has not been able to set a crucial policy on the “formation of a team” with regards to players recruitment, draft and retention.
New policies are set ahead of each season, creating dispute between the BPL GC and the franchises. The franchises often claim the policies are twisted to favour particular teams.
A similar disagreement was recently sparked after the BCB president Nazmul Hasan following a board meeting last week declared a few major decisions for the upcoming tournament. Among the decisions, one was the “newly set policy regarding player retention’. According to the new set of rules, a franchise will be allowed to retain four players from the previous season, including the overseas cricketers.
The decision had come in as a surprise and irked majority of the franchises. There is a huge argument over the decision, based on the fact that majority of the overseas cricketers in the BPL do not come through draft system, rather are directly signed. The BPL draft does not take guarantee of the highly-paid overseas cricketers, thus the franchises and the players are free for direct association.
“It was said four players can be retained, including both local and overseas cricketers. They (BPL GC and the franchises) can sit for discussion. A few of the franchises asked us about the future of those overseas cricketers who have already been signed for next season. This needs to discussed before reaching a point,” said BCB’s media and communications committee chairman and BPL GC technical committee member Jalal Younus to the media Saturday.
The BCB director informed that the BPL GC will soon sit for a meeting, bearing in mind the number of questions which have been raised related to policies for the upcoming season.
Broadcasting of the cash-rich tournament is another area with huge room for improvement. Considered a poorly broadcasted franchise T20 league, the stakeholders and supporters have been urging for an improved transmission of the most happening tournament of the country.
Jalal informed that the BPL GC also wants to improve the quality of the broadcast of the tournament.
“We also want to use as many cameras possible and have a much improved transmission of the tournament. We have plan to use LED stumps and spider-cam in the upcoming season and also the DRS (Decision Review System). This will involve high cost and we are ready to spend that money. Compared to the Indian version of the tournament – there is a vast difference. They have a bigger market and can spend a lot more than us. We have limitation but still we want to better the production quality. I believe there will be improved broadcasting compared to last season,” Jalal explained.
The sixth edition of the BPL is set to roll from the first week of October this year and finish by mid-November.
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