The most exciting competition in the country’s cricket scene is the franchise-based cricket league, the ‘BPL’ (Bangladesh Premier League). The much-anticipated players’ draft for the 11th edition is starting tomorrow morning.
On Monday, the draft will begin at 11:30 AM Bangladesh time at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in the capital. The fate of more than six hundred cricketers will be decided there.
A total of 632 cricketers, both local and foreign, will be included in the BPL draft. Among them, 88 are local players, while 440 are foreign. Around fifty fortunate cricketers will be selected by teams.
Seven teams are participating in this season. However, the four-time champion Comilla Victorians are not included. Instead, Rajshahi has returned. Meanwhile, the ownership of the Dhaka and Chattogram teams has changed.
The teams for this year’s BPL are Rangpur Riders, Fortune Barishal, Khulna Tigers, Chattogram Kings, Sylhet Strikers, Dhaka Capitals, and the formidable Rajshahi.
Besides the Test-playing nations, cricketers from many associate countries will also feature in the draft. Players from Bermuda, Italy, Portugal, Canada, and Singapore have also signed up.
Each team can retain two players from last season’s squad. Additionally, franchises are allowed to directly sign one player from any category without going through the draft.
Since three new teams are coming in for the upcoming BPL season, they do not have the option to retain old players. Therefore, these three new franchises can only directly sign two players each.
However, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has not set a limit on foreign players’ contracts. Franchises can sign foreign players directly as per their preference, which has allowed team owners to recruit big-name stars.
It was already announced that the payment for local cricketers in this year’s BPL has been reduced. In last season’s BPL, the base price for ‘A’ category cricketers was 8 million BDT, but this year it has been reduced to 6 million BDT.
Accordingly, ‘B’ category players will receive 4 million BDT, ‘C’ category players will get 2.5 million BDT, ‘D’ category players 2 million BDT, ‘E’ category 1.5 million BDT, and ‘F’ category players will receive 1 million BDT.
For foreign players, the maximum salary is set at $70,000 (equivalent to 8.35 million BDT). ‘B’ category foreign players will receive $50,000, ‘C’ category $30,000, ‘D’ category $25,000, and ‘E’ category players will receive $15,000 each.
