BPL 2025

Competing leagues and exodus of stars creating humdrum BPL

Alex Hales
Rangpur Riders batter Alex Hales. Photo: Facebook

Rangpur Riders star Alex Hales played his last game for the franchise in the current edition of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) on January 9 in Sylhet. Just three days later, he appeared for Desert Vipers against Abu Dhabi Knight Riders in the ILT20 in Abu Dhabi.

This is the life of a franchise cricketer in the current cricketing climate, one day you are here, the next day you are in some other place. Priorities change quickly for players while competition amongst leagues to attract the best players grows more intense every year.

"Alex would have stayed for the whole tournament if there was no scheduling clash with ILT20," a source close to the development said.

Even though Hales made just six appearances for Rangpur in this edition, he left his mark by scoring 218 runs at an average of over 54 and a strike-rate of 140. The Englishman also scored an unbeaten 113 which lit up the tournament early on.

Hales' departure was another drawback to the excitement factor for the BPL which already suffers from a dearth of renowned T20 stars.

The Big Bash League, SA20 and ILT20 are the three marquee T20 leagues currently clashing with the BPL, of which the latter two have become the preferred destination for most of the foreign stars.

Although South Africa's SA20 and the UAE's ILT20 are both relatively new leagues, they have the financial might to attract big stars, as seen with Hales.

Enamul Haque Jr, the assistant coach of Chittagong Kings, felt BPL had a scheduling issue.

"Definitely it's a scheduling problem since the big stars want to play in ILT20 or SA20. In 2012-13, many big stars played in the tournament here. In fact, I played alongside them for Chittagong Kings," Enamul said.

"If there is a scheduling clash with BPL, everyone would prefer to play in Dubai or South Africa. If we can shift it to December, this problem could be solved since the players would play here first before going there," he said when asked what BPL needs to do to draw bigger stars.

BCB's cricket operations in-charge Shahriar Nafees informed that a schedule change remains unlikely in the near future.

"The January-February window we use [from beginning] was approved by the ICC till 2027. So, our schedule partially clashes with SA20 and heavily clashes with ILT20. We can only change the window after 2027," he informed The Daily Star.

The excitement factor is mitigated if stars leave midway or after two-three appearances and it is one question that the BCB will have to address going forward.

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Competing leagues and exodus of stars creating humdrum BPL

Alex Hales
Rangpur Riders batter Alex Hales. Photo: Facebook

Rangpur Riders star Alex Hales played his last game for the franchise in the current edition of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) on January 9 in Sylhet. Just three days later, he appeared for Desert Vipers against Abu Dhabi Knight Riders in the ILT20 in Abu Dhabi.

This is the life of a franchise cricketer in the current cricketing climate, one day you are here, the next day you are in some other place. Priorities change quickly for players while competition amongst leagues to attract the best players grows more intense every year.

"Alex would have stayed for the whole tournament if there was no scheduling clash with ILT20," a source close to the development said.

Even though Hales made just six appearances for Rangpur in this edition, he left his mark by scoring 218 runs at an average of over 54 and a strike-rate of 140. The Englishman also scored an unbeaten 113 which lit up the tournament early on.

Hales' departure was another drawback to the excitement factor for the BPL which already suffers from a dearth of renowned T20 stars.

The Big Bash League, SA20 and ILT20 are the three marquee T20 leagues currently clashing with the BPL, of which the latter two have become the preferred destination for most of the foreign stars.

Although South Africa's SA20 and the UAE's ILT20 are both relatively new leagues, they have the financial might to attract big stars, as seen with Hales.

Enamul Haque Jr, the assistant coach of Chittagong Kings, felt BPL had a scheduling issue.

"Definitely it's a scheduling problem since the big stars want to play in ILT20 or SA20. In 2012-13, many big stars played in the tournament here. In fact, I played alongside them for Chittagong Kings," Enamul said.

"If there is a scheduling clash with BPL, everyone would prefer to play in Dubai or South Africa. If we can shift it to December, this problem could be solved since the players would play here first before going there," he said when asked what BPL needs to do to draw bigger stars.

BCB's cricket operations in-charge Shahriar Nafees informed that a schedule change remains unlikely in the near future.

"The January-February window we use [from beginning] was approved by the ICC till 2027. So, our schedule partially clashes with SA20 and heavily clashes with ILT20. We can only change the window after 2027," he informed The Daily Star.

The excitement factor is mitigated if stars leave midway or after two-three appearances and it is one question that the BCB will have to address going forward.

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দূষণে আমরা আতঙ্কিত: হাইকোর্ট

বসুন্ধরা গ্রুপকে ৪৭০ একর জমি বরাদ্দে অনিয়মের অভিযোগ তদন্তের নির্দেশ

আইনজীবী বলেন, চট্টগ্রামে সৈকতের বালুচর শ্রেণির জমিকে ডোবা দেখিয়ে বসুন্ধরাকে দীর্ঘমেয়াদী বন্দোবস্ত দেওয়া হয়েছে। এতে ১৮০ কোটি টাকা রাজস্ব বঞ্চিত হয়েছে সরকার।

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