Bangladeshi cricketers may have had some bitter experience about the Indian Premier League, but there has never been any lack of interest among the Tigers about league. It was evident when most of the members of the Bangladesh national cricket team registered their names for the IPL 2011 auction.
The Bangladesh Cricket Board has received as many as 16 letters of interest from the players, which included at least one player – Shubhagata Hom – who is yet to make his debut for Bangladesh in any format of the game.
Shubhagata, a member of the Bangladesh preliminary squad for the upcoming one-day series against Zimbabwe, however, showed his Twenty20 potential when he smashed 62 off 49 balls to lead Rajshahi Rangers to a win in the NCL Twenty20 final earlier this year.
A month before his Twenty20 heroics, Shubhagata made a mockery of the visiting England side’s bowling in a three-day warm–up match scoring 91 off 30 balls at the Chittagong divisional stadium.
The other Bangladeshi players who registered for the auction are – Tamim Iqbal, Sakib al Hasan, Shahriar Nafees, Roqibul Hassan, Junaed Siddique, Imrul Kayes, Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur Rahim, Rubel Hossain, Shafiul Islam, Shahadat Hossain, Jahirul Islam, Syed Rasel, Naeem Islam and Sohrawardi Shuvo.
The auction for the fourth IPL was supposed to be held in November but because of problems with a few franchises (Kochi, Rajasthan Royals and King’s XI Punjab), it has now been postponed to December. The date of expressing interests, however, expired on November 11.
It will be a fresh process after the end of first three seasons and the franchises have been given a ceiling of $8 million as the maximum expenditure by the IPL authority.
Three Bangladeshi players, Abdur Razzak, Mashrafee bin Murtaza and Mohammad Ashraful, who played in the money-spinning Twenty20 competition in the past, do not need to be registered for the IPL auction again.
The trio were auctioned in the first IPL, but only Razzak got a franchise. Royal Challengers Bangalore took him for $50,000 as Mashrafee and Ashraful went unsold. Razzak’s IPL experience was limited to only one game in which he bowled only two overs and conceded 29 runs for no wicket.
Mashrafee had created a stir in the next auction two seasons ago when Kolkatta Knight Riders outbid now ousted Kings XI Punjab to buy him for $6 million. Despite the staggering price, Mashrafee too had to remain content with just one game which he will never try to recall after conceding 58 runs in four overs.
He was treated so poorly by the KKR that he did not want to return to side in next season. He was finally convinced by Knight Riders captain Sourav Ganguly and their coach Dav Whatmore to join the team only to come back home without playing any match.
In the same second season, Mumbai Indians bought Ashraful for $75,000, but he too had a bitter experience. Ashraful made only two runs in his first game and was not picked for any more game. He was not invited to play in the next season.
Sakib al Hasan, the leading one-day all-rounder and hard-hitting opener Tamim Iqbal failed to attract any buyer in two successive auctions, making the cash-rich event nothing but a big enigma for the Bangladeshi players.
