BPL-3 fetches more foreign interest

Admin Sun Oct 18, 2015 4:49 am

A minimum of 20 more cricketers will be added to the Bangladesh Premier League Twenty20 players’ draft, informed Bangladesh Cricket Board media committee chairman Jalal Younus yesterday. He further informed that the nine under-19 players previously named in the draft will be withdrawn due to their busy schedule ahead.

The BPL governing council earlier released a list of 318 enlisted players – 122 local and 196 foreign – for its third edition next month. However, Jalal said that out of the enlisted foreign cricketers 150 have already
completed their registration while new names recently showed their interest in the tournament.

The Players’ by Choice, the process which will determine who plays where, is scheduled to take place on October 26.

“We have received requests from West Indies and England cricketers. They want to be named in the draft and their request in under process,” said Jalal. “We had nine under-19 cricketers in the list but they have a tight schedule ahead and wont be available. So the technical committee has decided not to keep them for the draft.”

He added, “But we are adding around nine crickets to the list now. I am not sure who are named in that list though.”

The BCB director, who is also an active member of the BPL technical committee, said there are many pending decisions for the Players’ by Choice and it will be taken care in a meeting with the franchises soon. Each side in the six-team competition will be able to register 13 local and 12 foreign players, and “We still need to think about it and we might also see some foreign cricketers getting removed from the list.”

It was understood that the franchises and the tournament committee reached an understanding where the six icon
cricketers – Shakib al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Masharfe bin Mortaza, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah and Nasir Hossain – will be unofficially handed over to their respected franchises.

But Jalal produced a new twist saying, “This thing is still to be decided. There is a possibility that the icon cricketers will be put up in the Players’ by Choice.”