Rajshashi Kings win Mustafizur

Mustafizur Rahman becomes the hot property of Rajshahi Kings. The left-arm pace bowler will feature for the Kings in the next edition of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), scheduled to start on November 3.

Rajshahi Kings owners did not give a second thought when they became the first of the seven teams to call first after winning the opening round lottery, where Mushtafizur was the only player up for grab. Placed in A plus category among the local players in the draft, the young pace bowler will now be part of a team that includes Bangladesh Test captain Mushfiqur Rahim as an icon player.

Mustafizur was a member of Dhaka Dynamites in the last two editions of the BPL but could not play a single game last year due to injury.

A total of 140 local and 208 overseas players are named in the fifth edition of the BPL T20 tournament players' draft, which is now taking place at the Radisson Hotel.

Among the local players, Mustafizur is the only one placed in Grade A+(45 Lac) while veteran left arm spinner Abdur Razzak is placed in Grade A (25 Lac).

There are seven foreign players in Grade A ($70,000) category with Azhar Ali (Pakistan), Dinesh Chandimal (Sri Lanka), Gary Balance (England), Kamran Akmal (Pakistan), Misbah-Ul-Haq (Pakistan), Tim Bresnan( England) and Upul Tharanga (Sri Lanka).

England forms the largest contingent of foreign players with 62 cricketers, Pakistan have 46 players and there are 26 players from Sri Lanka among the 208 players.

Cricketers from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe, UAE, Ireland and Afghanistan complete the rest of the list.

The foreign players are divided into six categories, Grade A to F. The A category players have been priced at $70,000 and the F category players are priced at $10,000.

While Barisal Bulls have been removed from this edition of the BPL, Sylhet makes a return after a year's gap.

According to new regulations each team can have five foreign players in the playing eleven while the franchises have to pick a minimum of seven local players and two overseas players.

Comilla Victorians roped in Tamim Iqbal while defending champion Dhaka Dynamites and Khulna Titans retained Shakib Al Hasan and Mahmudullah respectively while Sabbir Rahman and Soumya Sarkar to take part for Sylhet Sixers and Chittagong Vikings for the first time as the icon player for the upcoming season.