A total of 11 new companies have submitted their bid to own a franchise of the Bangladesh Premier League Twenty20 tournament, said Bangladesh Cricket Board on Tuesday.
The BCB said they will now evaluate the bids before selecting five to seven teams for the tournament, which will be resumed in November after two years.‘We will scrutinise the bids and evaluate their financial strengths before awarding them the ownership right of a franchise,’ BPL governing council secretary Ismail Haider Mallick told reporters after a meeting at a city office.
‘There are some financial bars that they have to meet. Hopefully we will be able to finalise the decision by the first week of next month,’ said Mallick.
The BPL secretary said initially they had the plan to start the tournament with five teams but with a good response they are now thinking of taking two more franchises.
The companies that have submitted their bids are- Beximco Group, Mediacom on behalf of Square, DBL Group, Sohana Group of Industries, Blues Communications, BBS Cables, Index Group, Axiom Technologies, Bengal Communications, Networld Bangladesh Limited and Fiber @home Limited.
All 10 companies are fresh bidders as BCB did not accept any bid from previous seven franchises because of financial disputes with them.
Mallick said that some of the franchises that participated in the previous editions had contacted with them but they were told to clear their dues before coming with a new proposal.
The BPL franchise owners in the first two seasons were SQ Sports (Chittagong Kings), Shihab Trading House (Dhaka Gladiators), Orion Sports (Khulna Royal Bengals), Mohan & Associates (Duranto Rajshahi), I-sports Limited (Rangpur Riders) and Flora limited (Sylhet Royals).
‘We have financial disputes with all the seven franchises who participated earlier. Arbitrations are going on in this matter with them. Until the financial matter is settled we cannot accept their bids.
‘Everyone is open to come if they clear their dues,’ said Mallick. ‘We will consider it later. Though at the moment we are planning with the new teams,’ he said.
However, two-time champions Dhaka Gladiators will not have the chance to participate in the coming editions even if they clear their dues as they are banned by ICC.
The owners of two-time champions Dhaka Gladiators – Salim Chowdhury and his son Shihab Jishan Chowdhury – were banned for 10 years by a special tribunal and disciplinary panel set up by the BCB.
The BCB also said event Management Company Game On will not be in charge of the tournament as their contract have been terminated. It however retained Channel-9 as broadcaster for the next four editions, saying that it has no outstanding payment.
‘We had tripartite agreement with Game On and Channel 9. As Channel- 9 cleared their dues we have decided to keep them as the broadcasting partner for the next four editions,’ Mallick said.
The third edition of BPL is scheduled to be held from November 22 to December 15.
-With New Age input
