The country's premier T20 competition has started with the opening match between Mashrafe Bin Mortaza's Rangpur Riders and Mushfiqur Rahim's Chittagong Vikings. This year's tournament will be blazed by the likes of Steve Smith, David warner, AB de Villers and Shahid Afridi, while seasoned BPL stars like Chris Gayle and Andre Russell are also set to play once more.

A short opening ceremony took place before start of play today and things will start to heat up as the tournament progresses.

The greatest T20 batsman, Chris Gayle, set the country alight with his exploits from 26 BPL matches, accumulating the most runs by an overseas player with 1,135 which includes five tons and a high score of 146. He arrived this morning and is expected to set the tournament on fire once more.

Steve Smith and Shahid Afridi. Photo: Firoz Ahmed

Comilla Victorians duo Smith and Afridi are also here and were seen together at the stadium before play started today.