Big 5 given choice of franchises

As per their request, Bangladesh's senior players were given the opportunity to choose their own teams for the fourth edition of the Bangladesh Premier League set to begin on November 4.

Member secretary of the BPL's governing council, IH Mallick, at a press conference in Mirpur yesterday told reporters that five senior players -- Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Tamim Iqbal and Mahmudullah Riyad, all belonging to the A-plus category -- had requested the BPL's governing council to increase their monetary value and be given an opportunity to select their own teams so that they could negotiate the payment terms personally with the franchises. 

The statement cleared the air over the confusion regarding a change in system of signing up the top players. The top players not being a part of the auctions was an aspect that was met with some criticism in the last few days.

“They came to us and told us that in other T20 leagues, local and foreign players get the same amount of money, which is not the case here. For example, players like Chris Gayle, Andre Russel, Kumar Sangakkara, who have been already bought by the BPL franchises, will be getting a lot more than our A-plus category players.

“So accordingly, we adjusted the prices of our players. Shakib's price in the list has been kept at Tk 55 lakh; Mashrafe, Tamim, Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur have been valued at Tk 50 lakh while the prices of Soumya Sarkar and Sabbir Rahman, the other players in the A-plus category have been kept at Tk 40 lakh,” explained Mallick.

Mallick also said that the seven players wanted to choose their own franchises so that they could gain some extra money. He also indicated that Shakib, Mashrafe and the other category A-plus players might have signed up for more money than their list value by each of the franchises.

“How much money they will eventually get will be based on the negotiations between the players and the franchises. As far as the BPL governing council is concerned, we will only take responsibility for the value given to them on the list. We won't be responsible for the extra money promised to any player during this tournament,” said Mallick.

Shakib will be playing for the Dhaka Dynamites, Mushfiqur for Barisal Bulls, Tamim for Chittagong Vikings, Mahmudullah Riyad for Khulna Titans, Mashrafe for Comilla Victorians, Sabbir Rahman for Rajshahi, Soumya Sarkar for Rangpur Riders.

Also the franchises that played in the last season were given an opportunity to retain two players from the squad. Dhaka retained Mosaddek Hossain and Nasir Hossain, Chittagong retained Taskin Ahmed and Anamul Haque, Rangpur retained Arafat Sunny and Mohammad Mithun, Comilla retained Imrul Kayes and Liton Das while Barisal retained Al-Amin Hossain and Taijul Islam.

As a result, the new franchises that joined this year -- Khulna and Rajshahi -- will be given the opportunity to make the first bids during the auctions which will take place on September 30.

Aside from the foreign players who have already been bought, there will be 170 more foreign cricketers to be auctioned. Each franchisee has to buy at least 10 local players and at least three foreign players.

National selectors and coaches, except for the foreign staff, have also been given leeway. They will be able to work with the franchises as consultants. They will, however, not be able to enter the dressing rooms of teams during the matches.

The auctions will follow last year's format. After Khulna and Rajshahi buy two players each, all the teams will take part in a lottery. They will be able to buy their players from different grades based on the number that they get in the lottery.

A total of 46 matches will take place in Dhaka and Chittagong, with the first match on November 4 and the final on either December 7 or 8.

QUESTIONS ABOUT CONFLICT OF INTEREST

On another note, questions regarding a conflict of interest were raised with regards to the ownership of the Dhaka Dynamites. Both the BCB president Nazmul Hassan Papon and director IH Mallick are officials of Beximco, the owners of the Dynamites.

Owners of other franchises alleged that while looking for players abroad or while signing the desired A-plus category player, the Dynamites had an advantage since they allegedly had a head start during the hunt.

Mallick, however, said that there was no scope for a conflict of interest since the department which he and the president works for under Beximco did not deal with the BPL franchises and that those matters were dealt with by a separate department which they were not part of.