After all the off-field drama and controversies, the second Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) rolls on the greens of the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur today with defending champions Dhaka Gladiators taking on Khulna Royal Bengals in the opening match at 2pm.
Barisal Burners face off Sylhet Royals in the other match at 6pm at the same venue.
The biggest challenge the BPL confronts this year is to create the same vibe and attraction among the fans, who will miss some big-name entertainers after the last minute refusal of Pakistan Cricket Board to grant NOC to any of their players.
Another issue, the non-payment of the players that dominated the first edition and had frequently made international headlines, is set to trouble the organizers. And on Thursday, BPL governing council chairman Afzalur Rahman Sinha admitted that he was not sure how many of the seven franchises have complied with the January 16 deadline for the pending payments of the players.
“We were very much engaged with the Pakistani player issue, so I can’t say anything clearly about the payment issues right at the moment. I have to check everything tomorrow.”
On the field, it will be even a bigger challenge for Khulna Royal Bengals, the hardest hit among the seven teams who bought as many as seven Pakistani cricketers in December auction.
On paper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza-led Dhaka Gladiators are well ahead of their opponents but Khulna skipper Shahriar Nafees promised a good fight with their limited resources.
“With our English cricketer Riki Wessels, the playing eleven is confirmed. It’s not easy to make replacement of so many players but our management is trying their best to make up the loss with good and quality players. Now we have to keep faith on the local players,” said Nafees.
“True, we are now in a very difficult position but no one can dismiss any team in T20 cricket,” he added.
On the other hand Mashrafe was not ready to take anything for granted.
“Its unfortunate but I don’t think the tournament will lose its charm due to the absence of the Pakistani players. There are a good number of quality players in the tournament. I’m very much hopeful that people will enjoy it like they had in the first edition,” said Mashrafe.
“We probably have the best local cricketers possible which include Shakib (Al Hasan), Bijoy (Anamul Haque), Ashraful (Mohammad), Rubel (Hossain), Saqlain (Sajib) and the foreigners are also strong — so yeah, it is very much possible to get positive results in the matches if we can give our best on the field. But we are not taking any team lightly because it’s a T20 game where nobody is favourite,” the Narail Express added.
Bangladesh and Sylhet Royals captain Mushfiqur Rahim also expressed optimism over the success of the tournament and said that they were not facing any problem following PCB’s refusal to release its players for the tournament.
“There wasn’t any high profile Pakistani player in our side and for that we are not facing any problem. Well, last season the result was not that impressive though the team was strong on paper. This year, we are focusing on match by match progress. We may lose the balance in absence of Tino Best and Andre Russel but the management is out to look for their best replacements and we hope, if everything goes well, we may kick off the tournament on positive note,” said Mushfiqur.
-With The Daily Star input
