In a major shakeup to the format of the tournament, the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), on Monday (July 24), announced that the teams will be allowed to include five overseas players in the playing XI during the upcoming edition of BPL. The tournament officials took the decision during the meeting where they talked about several issues regarding the upcoming edition of the league.
Ismail Haider, the BPL governing council member secretary, said that the organisers took the decision after being persuaded by 5 of the eight teams.
“We had considered the plea made by the franchises before allowing them to field five foreign cricketers. Five franchises asked for five foreigners in their line-up while two franchises asked for four cricketers and one franchise opted to remain silent in this regard. A team must field minimum three foreign players but can field maximum five in each game,” Ismail told reporters after the meeting.
The BPL official further stated that the tournament governing council would not take responsibility for the payment of the eight A-plus cricketers since they have been given the option to choose their own clubs. The eight cricketers, who were named during the meeting, are Mashrafe Mortaza, Shakib-Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur Rahim, Sabbir Rahman, Soumya Sarkar and newly Mustafizur Rahman.
“As they will choose their own teams and make their own deals we will not be responsible for their payments. The same applies to the foreigners who will not be bought from the draft player list that we provide in the player’s auction,” Ismail said.
The tournament officials also made it clear that all the franchises need to pick 13 local cricketers from BPL auction in addition to picking up a couple of foreign players from the players draft which will take place on September 30 in Dhaka.
Meanwhile, Ismail also confirmed that former Bangladesh international Sanowar Hossain has been barred from the upcoming tournament for his alleged involvement in match-fixing.
“We did not get any proof but still we don’t want to have [Sanowar] him in the tournament as he was involved with Dhaka Gladiators in the first two editions,” said Ismail.
The fifth edition of the tournament will start from November 2.