Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) is set to return after a gap of 2 years due to the COVID 19 pandemic. The tournament is set to be played over 1 month featuring 6 teams with sides allowed to pick 3 foreign players in their squad.
The tournament is set to clash with Pakistan Super League; however, many senior cricketers have confirmed their participation. Reportedly teams like Khulna Tigers, Rangpur Riders, and Dhaka Dynamites have pulled out of the tournament due to one-year Contracts.
The likes of international stars such as Faf du Plessis, Moeen Ali, Sunil Narine, Sam Billings, Andre Russell, and Mujeeb ur Rahman have confirmed to take part in the BPL despite the clash with PSL. The players’ draft for the BPL 2022 is set to be held on Monday, December 27.
According to the player draft list obtained by Cricbuzz, six leading players are included in the A category – Tamim Iqbal, Shakib Al Hasan, Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur Rahim, and Mustafizur Rahman – being the other five members.
Despite not featuring regularly in domestic cricket, former Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza is included in the highest category of the local player’s draft for the upcoming Bangladesh Premier League.
The inclusion of Mortaza in the highest category raised quite a few eyebrows considering he is not playing cricket regularly and is occupied with his duty as a member of a parliament.
“Yes we have kept Mashrafee in A category as we feel he deserves to be there,” said Ismail. “Though I cannot comment about the national team, he is still a very good player in the domestic circuit and is one of the best cricketing brains around. We must also show some respect for all his contribution and if you go by statistics you will see he is very successful in BPL,” governing council member secretary Ismail Haider told Cricbuzz
Injured all-rounder Mohammad Saifuddin was overlooked in the players’ draft list for the tournament that is scheduled to begin on January 21. However, it did not go well with him as he was eyeing to take part in the tournament purely as a batter considering his back injury wouldn’t permit him to bowl.
“Nobody is ready to hear or understand junior players like us. I don’t have any complaint against anyone but I am hurt,” Saifuddin wrote on his Facebook page.
The B category includes 14 cricketers while there are 40 cricketers in the C category. In D, E, F category there are 60, 63, and 29 players respectively.
Fee cap for local players in the BPL players draft
A category – (BDT 70 Lac), B category – (BDT 35 Lac), C category – (BDT 25 Lac), D category – (BDT 18 Lac), E category – (BDT 12 Lac), and F category – (BDT 05 Lac).
The BPL is all set to kickoff from January 21 and will go on till February 18.
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