In this proposed tournament, BCB will take care of all the teams and there will be no franchisee this year, Nazmul Hasan, the president of BCB told the media during a sudden press-conference on Wednesday.
After a discussion for weeks with the franchisees who have played the last season of BPL, BCB came to the point of saying that they will not renew the contract with the franchise now and no regular BPL will be held this year. Instead of that, they will host a T20 tournament- the proposed Bangabandhu BPL.
It is understood that the BCB failed to come to a fruitful discussion with the franchisees who demanded to share revenue of BPL with them. But this is not the main reason behind BCB’s recent move to replace BPL with the franchise-free Bangabandhu BPL.
This baffling move might ruin the brand of BPL for good. In the last edition of this premium T20 league of the country, the players like AB de Villiers, Alex Hales, Chris Gayle, Shahid Afridi, Sikandar Raza, Brendan Taylor, Lasith Malinga took part, which helped BPL to step up to a higher standard.
“We have sat with the franchise who have played in the last edition of BPL. They came up with several demands. We found some of them are against our current model of BPL. We failed to adjust with them. At the same time, some franchisees wanted another season of BPL should not be hosted this year. However, we now have decided to host a BPL under our own sponsorship,” Nazmul told the media on Wednesday.
“At the same time, we have 100th birth anniversary of Bangabandhu next year. So we have decided to dedicate this tournament to Bangabandhu. The name of the teams will be the same and will arrange the accommodation of the players, transportation and everything. So those who wanted us to share revenue will be happy because they can now save money this year,” Nazmul added.
Nazmul’s remarks made it clear that BCB is reluctant to share revenue with the franchisees. At the same time, the board is not agreed with the franchise who don’t want any BPL this year as well.
However, Nazmul did not rule out the possibility of any changes to the names of the teams if any sponsor comes along the way. It has manifested BCB’s blurry vision about this year’s tournament.
While talking to UNB exclusively earlier, three high-officials of several franchises said that they want BCB to share revenue with them. They also said it is getting difficult for them to continue taking part in BPL without any financial reward from the authority.
However, BCB president ruled out any possible financial damage of the franchise who have participated in BPL previously. He rather said the franchisees bring the high-paid players from around the world because of BPL is financially lucrative for them.
As BCB opted to operate the whole tournament on their own, the tournament is going to lose its competitiveness as well as the attraction of the foreign players and coaches, which will surely create many obstacles for BCB to make them believe in the tournament again.
So, it might sound harsh but it is true that the latest move of BCB might ruin the brand of BPL for good, which was built in the last six years.