Barishal steals the show in BPL draft

Defending champions Fortune Barishal stole the limelight in the players' draft event of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) 2025 by securing the services of six of the 12 Category A cricketers from the domestic players list by drafting in Najmul Hossain Shanto, Mahmudullah Riyad and Rishad Hossain yesterday.

Barishal had already retained Tamim Iqbal and Mushfiqur Rahim and directly signed Towhid Hridoy from Category A, each of whom will earn Tk 60 lakh for their services this season.

Barishal also picked local players such as Tanvir Islam, Ebadot Hossain and Taijul Islam added overseas recruits like James Fuller, Pathum Nissanka and Nandre Burger to their impressive collection of players which already included direct signings Kyle Mayers, Dawid Malan and Mohammad Nabi before the draft.

Barishal seemed like a team with purpose in the draft with Tamim and Mushfiqur present in the franchise table along with head coach Mizanur Rahman Babul.

Soon after Mahmudullah, who was part of Barishal's title winning campaign last season, got picked by the franchise in their first call, he also joined Tamim and Mushfiqur at the Barishal table.

"We tried to build a strong team. We selected almost every player who was part of our team in the last campaign. We will try to gift everyone good cricket," Barishal owner Mohammad Mizanur Rahman told the reporters after the draft event in a city hotel.

"We all planned together to build the team, me, Tamim, Mushfiqur. So, it was a teamwork," he added.

The most surprising incident of the draft was when Durbar Rajshahi, one of the three new franchises this season, picked uncapped Jishan Alam from the draft after earlier announcing him as one of their two direct local signings along with Anamul Haque Bijoy.

An official of the franchise later confirmed to The Daily Star that they had to release Jishan right before the draft due to an issue with the agreement but they went on to pick the same player in their second call after they roped in pacer Taskin Ahmed in the first call.

Another notable incident was Dhallywood film star Shakib Khan joining the event as Dhaka Capitals' co-owner, adding a touch of glamour, something that is quite prevalent in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Meanwhile, Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president and BPL Governing Council chairman Faruque Ahmed said after the event that rather than fixating on just the tournament, they are trying to address issues at the grassroot level which are hindering success in the BPL.

"Rather than thinking only about how we can do better in BPL, if we can fix the problems at the grassroot levels, things will improve automatically. You need to give us the time do that, the process has already begun."