BPL’s second edition auction today

The players’ auction for the second edition of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) will be taken place at the Utshab Banquet Hall of the Radisson Blue Water Garden Hotel, Dhaka on Thursday. The covetous bidding of the players’ auction is scheduled to kick-start at 11 am for the seven franchised teams. Rangpur Riders will make their debut in the second edition as the seventh team. The bidding process will be opened with the foreign players, while local players bidding will be held in the second phase of the auction.

Australian famous auctioneer Cyrus Madani will conduct the players’ auction ceremony like the previous season. Mahbub Anam, member of the ad-hoc committee of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), will be acted as the auction commissioner. Along with that, chairman of the seven-franchised teams will also be present.

A total of 134 foreign players from 13 countries have already registered their names for the first day bidding though franchises will have opportunity to sign players after the BPL auction as replacement of contracted players who are not available to play due to injuries or national commitments. Under BPL rules, the replacements have to be chosen from the pool of players who went unsold in the auction on December 20 and cannot be paid more than the players they are replacing, though they can be paid less.

Unlike the first season there will be no icon players and the players taking part in the player’s auction will be divided into four categories.

Bangladeshi private television channel “Channel-9’ will telecast the auction programme live from the venue as the official channel for the BPL.

“Out of the listed overseas players, we will give chances to those players who showed their interest to take part in the bidding as we’re still getting good players’ offer from different countries,” said Ismail Haider Mallick, member secretary of the BPL governing council.

“Meanwhile, a bunch of Sri Lankan players including Kumara Sangakkara, Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews and Tillakaratne Dilshan expressed their keen desires to play in the showcase event,” Mallick also said.

“Active Services will sign an agreement with the BPL as the title sponsor and ticket ownership rights of the tournament with Game On, the official event management company prior to the auction,” Mallick informed.

Each team will consist of 20 players and each participating team can register a maximum number of 10 overseas players. Out of which five will be allowed to play in a match.

BPL governing council defined the limit of the expenditures for every franchised team to form their team. Each team can spend a maximum amount of US$ 15 lakh in the auction.

The matches of the BPL second edition will be held at MA Aziz Stadium in Chittagong, Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium in Khulna apart from Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka.

The opening ceremony of the gala event will be held on January 17, while the matches will begin from January 18.