Trying to turn BPL into a brand, again

"The more things change, the more they stay the same," a quote from French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr from the mid-1800s, comes to mind hearing the pre-tournament talks ahead of the 11th edition of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), set to begin on December 30.

This will be the first edition of the BPL following a dramatic change in the country's political landscape, which has ushered in significant changes in almost every sector of the country, including the cricket board.

Nazmul Abedeen Fahim, who along with current Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Faruque Ahmed joined the board of directors following the fall of the Awami League government, spoke to the media recently about how the current interim government wants to turn BPL into a brand and how Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus is leading the charge in this initiative.

"The Chief Adviser has taken charge out of his own accord. His team is working specifically on how it (BPL) can be developed into an international-standard tournament and as a brand… Even Bangladesh will hopefully be recognised as a brand after this BPL," Fahim told reporters on Monday.

Fahim saying that the BCB wants to make BPL a brand for Bangladesh is interesting, as chances are he has no idea that the same idea was expressed by board officials back in January 2012, right before the inaugural edition.

However, after talking about developing BPL as a unique brand for Bangladesh, the board officials back then proceeded to blatantly copy the blueprint of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Much like the IPL, a players' auction took place where teams made bids which they later could not pay up, a glitzy opening ceremony was held where Bollywood stars performed, and even a tournament theme song was made in collaboration with Indian and Bangladeshi artistes.

The board was perhaps hoping to replicate IPL's success but instead, the BPL started looking like a cheap imitation of its Indian counterpart.

By the 10th edition, the scale of BPL had reduced significantly. The board had seemingly given up on the tournament as many more franchise leagues had cropped up since then and had already surpassed BPL in terms of fanfare and sheer quality.

The once extravagant opening ceremony was replaced by a simple balloon release event in the last few seasons and talks about turning BPL into a brand had disappeared completely, until now.

While speaking to the media, Fahim said that the board wants to utilise Professor Yunus's experience of working as an adviser in global sporting events, which included this year's Paris Olympics.

He also hinted that the board plans to attract international attention by using the CA's global pull to bring in a global sports icon, something he had done in 2006 by inviting and bringing Zinedine Zidane to Bangladesh, or perhaps a Hollywood star for the opening ceremony.

A grand opening ceremony, promoting social causes through the tournament and showcasing the sacrifices made by the student-led people's movement in July-August could very well generate hype for the upcoming edition, but it would all be for nought if the on-field action is lacklustre.

The problems that plagued BPL before are still present. Two brand new teams have joined and one has returned after a long break, franchises are struggling to attract top-quality cricketers from overseas and the tournament is still constrained to the same three venues – Dhaka, Chattogram and Sylhet.

Sub-par scoring rate is still a big issue for BPL, as last season the tournament's average runs per over was 7.92, whereas in the IPL it stood at 9.56.

The problems of BPL as a tournament are too many to tackle in such a short time and truthfully, if the current administration could conclude the next edition without any big controversy, that should be considered as a success.

As for turning BPL into a brand, first, it has to establish itself as a competitive tournament with top-quality cricket and, more importantly, come up a viable business model to attract real investors.

If that can't be ensured, it wouldn't matter even if Tom Cruise rode a motorcycle off the roof of the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, did multiple 360-degree flips midair and landed smackdab at the centre wicket to hand over the coin for the toss of the opening match, eventually, the enthusiasm would fizzle out.