Four foreigners per side in BPL 2018

The next edition of the Bangladesh Premier League will allow four foreign players in the playing eleven per match as opposed to the five that participated in the 2017 edition of the T20 league.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) took the decision in a board meeting held this evening at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur. 

"In the last BPL five foreign players could play per match, but we have decided that only four foreign players can play at a time in a match in the next edition," said BCB president Nazmul Hassan after the meeting. 

There was some discontent during the last edition when, especially during the start of the event, when local players were not performing as well as their foreign counterparts and one of the reasons mooted was that the five-foreigner rule worked against the locals.

"Retention is another issue. There is confusion surrounding the retention of local and foreign players every time, so it is better to clarify it ahead of time," Hassan added. "We decided that any franchisee can retain four players, be they local or foreign. The maximum number of players to be retained is four, and they can be any combination of local and foreign players, but a maximum of four."

Hassan also added that this time, the tournament will start from the first week of October. 

"The governing council tabled a proposal, which we have unanimously accepted. One of the major issues was when it would start and when it would end. We have decided that it will start from the first week of October and continue till mid-November. Till now, we were thinking about October 5 to November 16, but we will try to start it from October 1, bring it forward by four or five days so that we can get additional time at the back end."