The Bangladesh Cricket Board invited top clubs of the Dhaka Premier League to play in a Twenty20 tournament after it failed to woo the corporate houses amid political chaos, officials said on Wednesday. The BCB had planned to organise the tournament on franchisee-basis from December 22 to 31 and had invited some reputed corporate houses, but most of them turned down the invitation citing the political situation.
A frustrated BCB was about to drop the idea on Wednesday before the clubs came to their rescue and promised to participate after they had a successful meeting with BCB president Nazmul Hasan at his Beximco office.
‘So far Mohammedan, Abahani and Prime Bank have agreed to participate in the competition and we are in talks with a few other clubs to become the fourth participants. Hopefully we will be able to confirm you the name tomorrow,’ said a BCB official, preferring not to be named.
The BCB official said the tournament will be on double league basis with each team playing against the others twice with top two teams making the final. Clubs will arrange funds for participation and the BCB will not give any grant. He added all the BCB plans is an attractive prize money for the winners.
‘We have a plan to give Tk 20 lakh as prize money to the winners and Tk 10 lakh to the runners-up,’ said the BCB official. ‘As the domestic club season has already ended the clubs have to form a fresh squad for the tournament. We will select 60 players who will be divided into two categories. The first category players will receive Tk 2.5 lakh each and the second category players will get Tk 1.5 lakh each.’
BCB officials said that the tournament will not be a mere warm-up competition like the recently-concluded Challenge Cup T20 series, where the national team and the Bangladesh A team played three matches against each other.
The BCB officials said talks are at the final stage with a local television channel for broadcasting the games, which is crucial to getting a sponsor.
‘We are talking to Gazi TV to sponsor the event. Negotiations are at the final stage. Hopefully we will be able to give you the confirmation soon.’
The official added that they are keen to host the tournament in Sylhet so that they can also test the venue ahead of next year’s World T20.
The Sylhet divisional stadium will make its international debut through a one-day international between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka on February 17.
The BCB wants the Sylhet pitch to be tested before its international debut, said the official. However, if the BCB cannot host the matches in Sylhet because of political chaos, the matches will be held at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka. Otherwise, the SBNS will only host the final.
-With New Age input
