Sylhet Royals set to return under new ownership

Sylhet Sports Limited (SSL) submitted their ‘Expression of Interest’ (EoI) in the last day of the deadline to be franchisee of Sylhet for the fifth edition of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) 2017.

The SSL representatives led by Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) director Shafiul Alam Chowdhury Nadal handed over their documents to BCB chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury Shujan at the BCB Management Office yesterday.

Shujan was accompanied by BPL member secretary and BCB director IH Mallick along with others BCB and SSL officials.

Before and after the submission ceremony, Shafiul Alam said that some businessmen along with some emigrant of Sylhet will be saturated with their franchisee. Finance Minister AM Abdul Muhith will be with us as the chief patron..

“We all have been inspirited to be franchisee of Sylhet by Finance Minister AMA Muhith. He is our main patron. Some local businessmen and emigrant are behind the team,” said Alam. “We hope we will form a stronger and well-balanced Sylhet Royals team for the BPL,” he also said. The BPL-5 is expected to get underway in November with the participation of the eight franchisee teams though the fixed date of the T20 blast has not finalized yet by BPL governing Council.

Seeking the new franchisee for Sylhet, BPL governing Council floated their advertisement at different print and electronic media in the first week of May. Sylhet Royals could not play the last edition of the BPL as they were defaulted by Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) because of their payment issue coupled with ownership problems. A total of five companies showed their interest to be franchisee of Sylhet. But Sylhet Sports Limited among the interested parties, only company who represent the local Sylhet. And so, the council gave their green signal to SSL to submit their Expression of Interest (EoI) for the franchisee of Sylhet. Now the next meeting of the council, which will be held on Monday, will approve and send to BCB president Nazmul Hassan Papon for his approval. The number of venue of the BPL might be increased. In that case, Sylhet International Cricket Stadium may be the third venue after the existing venues of Dhaka and Chittagong. When asked about Sylhet venue, Mallick said that there is no five-star hotel in Sylhet near to the venue.

“We’ve a world class venue in Sylhet. But we need five-star hotel or five-star facilitated hotel to run the multi-team tournament. Along with that, the hotel will be far 45-minute distance from the venue. In that sense, there is no hotel in Sylhet,” said Mallick. “But there is a hotel of Rose View wherein we could run at least a bilateral series because it could not be accommodated together a number of teams,” he also said.

“We did not think to change the name of the franchisee as the team played some editions under the banner of Sylhet Royals since the last few years,” said Shafiul Alam Chowdhury, who will play a role as the coordinator of Sylhet Royals. On the other hand, BCB director and BPL governing council member Sheikh Sohel said that they will celebrate the opening ceremony of the upcoming BPL with different fashion. “We want to celebrate the BPL opening with grand ceremony because people will be attracted with such type of programme,” said Sheikh Sohel, who is also the chairman of the ceremony committee.

“We’ve thought not to bring actor and actress to enthrall the opening ceremony. But this time it will be a different. We’ll bring some notable foreign singers, who will enchant with local vocalists,” Sohel told reporters. But he said that they don’t think to bring superstar Shahrukh Khan or Alia Bhatt because they demand more money for the short period.

It is learnt that R Jeet Singh and Shreya Ghoshal will be mesmerized the local audience with their popular songs in the opening ceremony.