Bangladesh Premier League will happen over a period of 20 days © AFP
By CricketCountry Staff
Dhaka: Dec 29, 2011
The first season of Bangladesh Premier League will start on 9th February, 2012. The tournament will happen over a period of 20 days, with the final on 29th February.
BPL will consist six teams which will play each other twice. It will happen in a round-robin format. The matches will be held at Chittagong and Dhaka.
Unlike the Indian version, teams can use five players in their side.
Among the 25 foreign players who will be participating, Adam Gilchrist, Mathew Hayden, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, Kamran Akmal and James Anderson will be playing too.
Game on Sports which paid US $44.3 million for the rights of the BPL, will be broadcasting for the next six years.
Arun Lal, who is the consultant to Game on Sports and the tournament organisers said, “The main thing is the Bangladesh players have to be available.”
Like IPL, each team will have an icon player. Tamim Iqbal will be the icon player for Chittagong, Mohammad Ashraful for Dhaka, Alok Kapali for Sylhet, Shahriar Nafees for Barisal, Mushfiqur Rahim for Rajshahi and Shakib Al Hasan for Khulna.
The icon players will be paid 5% more than the highest paid player for any franchise.
The franchise auction will take place in Dhaka or Cox’s Bazar on the 5th of January whereas the player auction will happen ten days later to that.
Teams have to spend a minimum of US $2 million up to a maximum of $5 million.
Companies wanting to bid for a particular franchise will have to submit their papers and offers on the same day.
The organisers are in discussion with Ten Sports over the broadcast in India. BPL will be broadcasted on a new sports channel in Bangladesh.
However there is a cloud over the participation of Indian players in the BPL.
"India is a problem," Lal told ESPNcricinfo.
"In the first six or eight games, they [India players] could play."
