Bangladesh Premier League

This article is about the cricket league. For the football league, see Bangladesh Premier League (football).

Bangladesh Premier League

Upcoming season or competition: 2016 Bangladesh Premier League
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Formerly	National Cricket League (2010-12)
Sport	Cricket
Founded	January 18, 2012 (2012-01-18)
Inaugural season	2012
Owner(s)	Bangladesh Cricket Board
CEO	Sayedul Sazid
President	Azmain Khan
No. of teams	8
Country	Bangladesh
Headquarters	Mirpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Most recent champion(s)	Comilla Victorians (1st title)
Most titles	Dhaka Dynamites(2)
TV partner(s)	Bangladesh: Channel Nine Asia: BeIN Sports, Geo Super, NEO Prime, MTV Sports Americas: ESPN, SportsMax Europe: Premier Sports, Channel Nine Europe
Tournament format	Double round-robin and knockout
Official website	tigercricket.com.bd
Notes
Mushfiqur Rahim leads the leaderboard with 819 runs and Kevon Cooper is the highest wicket taker with 49 wickets.

The Bangladesh Premier League (BPL, also known as BRB BPL) is a professional Bangladeshi Twenty20 cricket league consisting of six teams, which was established by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) in 2012 and is the highest professional cricket league in Bangladesh. The BPL's three-week league games runs from the last week of November to the second week of December and the championship game is held on the day before Victory Day. Each team plays ten league games in a double Round-robin format. Following the conclusion of the league matches, four teams advance to the semi-finals, a single-elimination tournament culminating in the Championship game, played between the two winners of the semi-finals.

The BPL was formed in 2012 by the BCB, with six original founding club franchises. After the first two seasons, all six franchises were suspended by the governing committee for violating the tournament regulations. Due to that, the third edition was indefinitely postponed, and was later held in 2015 with six new franchises. The number of teams will be increased to eight from the fourth edition of the tournament. The BPL had the third highest average attendance among all cricket leagues with respect to the average crowd per match during the 2015 season. In 2016, the BPL was revealed as the second most followed cricket league in the world, second to the Indian Premier League (IPL). The brand valuation of BPL is estimated at around $500 million.

As of 2015, Mushfiqur Rahim leads with most runs (819) while Kevon Cooper has the most wickets (49). With two BPL championships, Dhaka Dynamites is the most successful team of the tournament. The current champions are the Comilla Victorians, who defeated the Barisal Bulls by three wickets in BPL III.

History

Foundation

After immense success of cricket leagues around the world, The Bangladesh Cricket Board announced it's ambitious plan to introduce Bangladesh Premier League, replacing National Cricket League (2010–12). On 18 January 2012, BCB entered 6-year, 350-crore deal with Game On Sports Group. The deal gave Game On Group exclusive management rights to the tournament. The league officially kicked off 9 February 2012 with six founding franchises from the largest cities of Bangladesh. During the franchise auction, thirteen companies took part in the bidding process, with six winning the rights of each clubs. The auction fetched 305-crores, with Chittagong Kings being the most expensive buy.

During the franchise auction, the legal rights of Chittagong Kings was bought by SQ Sports, consisting of a group of businessmen led by Dhaka Dyeing. Apart of them, Pearl Tradings and Digital Auto Care also participated in bid for Chittagong. Khulna based franchise fetched the second-highest price, and was bought by Orion Group while Sylhet was bought by Bangladesh's manufacturing giant Walton Hi-Tech Industries Limited. The biggest surprise at the auction was lack of interest from companies for Dhaka franchise. Only three companies placed a bid for the franchise, with all three entities offering no more than the base price.

Expansions and terminations

Rangpur Riders were added as the seventh team to join the league during the second season of the tournament. During December 2012, the Riders were sold to I-Sports Limited for US$15.50 million. The decision to introduce Rangpur was made after addition of Rangpur as the seventh administrative division of Bangladesh. In 2015, Comilla Victorians was introduced as the eighth team of the tournament, and sold to Nafisa Kamal's Legends Sporting Limited. Comilla Victorians are currently the most-expensive franchise in the league,r fetching a price of US$27.50 million. The Victorians made their first appearance during 2015 Bangladesh Premier League.

It has been proposed that the tournament would undergo expansion into more regional areas which lacks proper cricket infrastructure. As a part of the expansion implement, Many companies have shown interest in developing international sports arenas in the regions. The proposed teams also includes Noakhali, and Mymensingh. During the third season of the tournament, few firms were interested in buying Noakhali franchise, However, the Governing committee stalled the plan temporarily, until proper infrastructure is developed in the region.

In 2013, The owners of all six original teams were suspended, due to constant violation of the league regulations and delay in making payments to the players.The owners of Dhaka Gladiators were handed a lifetime suspension by the governing committee.

Progression

The first edition of the league was officially launched on 9 February 2012, in a lavish opening ceremony at Sher-e-Bangla Cricket Stadium, home of Bangladesh Cricket. The players auction was held on 18 and 19 January 2012, where Pakistani all-rounder Shahid Afridi received the highest bid of US$700,000, closely followed by Caribbean hard-hitter Chris Gayle. Six icon players were signed for US$210,000 each. The inaugural game was contested between Sylhet Royals and Barisal Burners, which the burners convincingly won by reaching the target of 165 in only 13 overs after Chris Gayle's blazing innings of 101* in 44 balls. The first semi-final was played between Duronto Rajshahi and Barisal Burners. Winning the match by 8 wickers, Burners were the first team to reach the tournament final. The second semi-final was held between Dhaka Gladiators and Khulna Royal Bengals, a close contest was won by the Gladiators by a margin of 9 runs. The Championship game was between Dhaka Gladiators and Barisal Burners. Dhaka Gladiators emerged as the champions of the first edition after beating the Burners by 8 wickets. All matches were held at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium and Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium.

The second season of the tournament began on 18 January 2013, with the opening ceremony taking place on 17 January, while the player auction player's auction took place on 20 December 2012.[10] Dhaka Gladiators again emerged as champions beating Chittagong Kings in the final by 43 runs. Sher-e-Bangla Cricket Stadium in Dhaka hosted most matches while the MA Aziz Stadium replaced the Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong and Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium in Khulna hosted matches of the tournament for the time in 2013. Unlike the first season, there were no icon players and the players taking part in the player's auction were divided into four categories, as opposed to the two categories in the first season.

Owing to technical issues, Bangladesh Premier League was not played during 2014. However it returned in 2015 for the third season which began on 22 November 2015 and featured six teams and a tournament format with a double round robin group stage, qualifier-eliminator type semi-finals and a final. The third edition of the tournament will feature the new franchises as all of the franchises from the 2012 and 2013 seasons were canceled. The new franchises are Barisal Bulls, Chittagong Vikings, Comilla Victorians, Dhaka Dynamites, Rangpur Riders and Sylhet Super Stars. The opening ceremony launched at 20 November 2015 at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium and the tournament kicked off at 22 November 2015. The final will be played on 15 December . BRB Cables Limited was awarded with the title sponsorship and stadium rights for the third season.

Corporate Structure

At a corporate level, the Bangladesh Premier League considers itself an association made up of and financed by its member teams. Each individual team is subject to tax because they make a profit. The tax is also applied to the participating players, as they are subjected to pay income tax based on their salary. Every dollar of income generated through television rights, licensing agreements, sponsorship, ticket sales and other means is earned and shared between the Bangladesh Cricket Board and the participating clubs is taxable.

The league has three defined officers, the President, secretary and Chief of treasurer. Being the parent organization of the league, Bangladesh Cricket Board board members elects and appoints the commissioner of the league, while the president of Cricket board serves as the president of the league committee. The secretary appoints the treasurer and has broad authority in disputes between clubs, players, coaches, and employees. He is the "Chief executive officer". of the BPL and also has authority in hiring league employees, negotiating contracts, disciplining individuals that own part or all of an BPL team, clubs, or employed individuals of an BPL club if they have violated the regulations of league by laws or committed "conduct detrimental to the welfare of the League or professional Cricket".

League organization

Chittagong Vikings

Dhaka Dynamites

Comilla Victorians

Barisal Bulls

Rangpur Riders

Sylhet Super Stars

The Bangladesh Premier League consists of six clubs divided into six administrative divisions of the country. During the regular season, each team is allowed a maximum of 18 players in its roster, which includes eight overseas players; only eleven players, including four overseas players are eligible to play on game days. Each BPL club is granted a franchise, the league authorization for the team to operate in its home city. Each member has the exclusive right to host cricket games inside its home territory and the rights to advertise, promote and host events in its city.

The Comilla Victorians are the most valuable BPL franchise with value approximately at US$27.50 million. The auction for the current franchises were held in 2015, in which thirteen interested companies took part. The valuation of the six franchises are approximately US$135 million, which is 345% higher than the six previous franchises.

In 2016, Two Existing inactive franchises from Khulna and Rajshahi will be auctioned, and the clubs will join the league during the 2016 season of the tournament. According to numerous media outlets, Mango Entertainment Group is the front-runner for the Rajshahi-based franchise. According to the league committee, the company also attempted to buy the franchise during the 2015 season, however was turned down as committee wanted to go ahead with six teams. The bid will be fierce as several billion-dollar corporations have also shown interest which includes Prime Bank Limited, Summit Group, Asian Group of Industries, and Hamim Group.

Season format

The seeding bracket for the BPL playoffs

Bangladesh Premier League is played in a double round-robin format. During Group Stage, every team plays each other twice, and the top four teams in the point table qualify for the playoff stage. The qualifier game is played between the team that leads the point table and the team in third position, and the winner advances to the championship game. The loser of the qualifier meets the winner of eliminator one. The eliminator one game is played between the second and fourth position, and the winner advances to the eliminator two. The second stage of eliminator is played between the loser of qualifier and the winner of the eliminator one, and the winner advances to the championship game.

The regular-season games are divided between three phases: The first phase of the tournament is played in Dhaka, while the second phase in held in Chittagong and third phase in Khulna. Each phase lasts for one week. In 2015, tournament governing committee expressed their intention to move away from the phase system to home-away round robin format, which means, each team will play each other once at its home venue and once at an away venue. The board plans to introduce the new format after construction of 70,000-capacity Purbachal International Cricket Arena in Dhaka, 100,000-capacity Sheikh Kamal International Stadium in Cox's Bazzar, and renovation to existing stadiums in Rangpur and Barisal.

Tournament results

Winners

Year	Final venue	Final			Teams	MVP
		Winner	Result	Runner-up
2012 Details	Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium	Dhaka Gladiators 144/2 (15.4 overs)	Dhaka Gladiators won by 8 wickets Scorecard	Barisal Burners 140/7 (20 overs)	6	Shakib Al Hasan
2013 Details	Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium	Dhaka Gladiators 175/1 (20 overs)	Dhaka Gladiators won by 52 runs Scorecard	Chittagong Kings 123(16.5 overs)	7	Shakib Al Hasan
2015 Details	Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium	Comilla Victorians 157/7 (20 overs)	Comilla Victorians won by 3 wickets Scorecard	Barisal Bulls 156/4 (20 overs)	6	Ashar Zaidi

Overall records

Team	Performance						Standing
	Match	Win	Loss	Tied	No Results	Win Percentage	2012	2013	2015
Barisal Bulls	37	20	17	0	0	54.05%	R	5th	R
Chittagong Vikings	35	15	20	0	0	42.85%	5th	R	6th
Comilla Victorians	12	9	3	0	0	75.00%	DNP	DNP	W
Dhaka Dynamites	37	22	15	0	0	59.46%	W	W	4th
Rangpur Riders	24	12	12	0	0	50.00%	DNP	5th	3rd
Sylhet Super Stars	34	14	20	0	0	41.17%	6th	3rd	5th
Duronto Rajshahi	24	12	12	0	0	50.00%	3rd	4th	DNP
Khulna Royal Bengals	23	9	14	0	0	39.13%	4th	7th	DNP

•      Defunct teams

League championships

Teams	Span	Championship	Runner Up	Appearances	Playoffs	Group Stage
Dhaka Dynamites	2012–Present	2 (2012, 2013)	0	3	1 (2015)	0
Comilla Victorians	2015–Present	1 (2015)	0	1	0	0
Barisal Bulls	2012–Present	0	2 (2012, 2015)	3	0	1 (2013)
Chittagong Vikings	2012–Present	0	1 (2013)	3	0	2 (2012, 2015)
Rangpur Riders	2013–Present	0	0	2	1 (2015)	1 (2013)
Sylhet Super Stars	2012–Present	0	0	3	1 (2013)	1 (2012)
Duronto Rajshahi	2012-2014	0	0	2	2 (2012, 2013)	0
Khulna Royal Bengals	2012-2014	0	0	2	1 (2012)	1 (2013)

Trophies and Awards

BRB-BPL Trophy

Team Trophies

The Bangladesh Premier League has used three different trophies to honor its champion over its existence. The first trophy, Destiny-BPL Trophy was awarded during the first season of the tournament. The heavyweight gold trophy with metallic finish was manufactured by Amecon. The name Destiny-BPL comes from the sponsor of the tournament Destiny2000 Group. The trophy was changed during the second season of the league, after inclusion of Prime Bank Limited. In 2015, A permanent design was unveiled, and titled BRB-BPL Championship Trophy.

Player awards

The BPL recognizes a number of awards for its players, coaches and match officials at its grand Honors presentation. The most prestigious award is the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award. Other major awards include the Batman of the tournament, Bowler of the tournament and Rookie of the tournament. The tournament also recognizes the best player from every game, through Man of the Match awards. Other awards includes Most catches of the tournament, and Most valuable overseas player. The player of the tournament in awarded a car from Honda, while each centurian and five wicket takers are awarded a sports bike from Italjet.

Prize money

The 2015 season of the BPL offered a total prize money of ট10 crore (US$1.5 million), with the winning team netting 5 crore (US$700,000).The first and second runners up received 2.5 and 1.5 crores, respectively, with the fourth placed team also winning 1 crores. The others teams are not awarded any prize money. The centurions and four wicket takers from the tournament are also awarded with motorcycles from Italjet while the MVP of the tournament is awarded with a car.

Revenue

For the first season of the tournament, Bangladeshi conglomerate Destiny Group bagged a one-year (2012–13) sponsorship rights for 7.5 crores taka(US$1.0 million). Prime Bank Limited was awarded with the sponsorship deal for the second season (2013–14) for 10 crores taka(US$1.5 million). BRB Cables Limited currently holds the tournament sponsorship rights for third season with 15 crores taka (US$2.0 million).

Media coverage

In Bangladesh, the Bangladesh Premier League has television contracts with Channel Nine. The League has television contract with seven other television network across the world: ESPN hold the rights to all games in North America, which includes United States, Canada and Mexico. The games are broadcast by NEO Prime in India, Geo Super in Pakistan, and MTV Sports in Sri Lanka. BeIN Sports holds exclusive rights to all the games in Middle east, while Sportmax and Premier Sports airs the tournament in the Caribbean and United Kingdom. Channel Nine UK holds the rights to all games in Europe, excluding United Kingdom. Channel Nine holds the exclusive rights to the promotion and distribution of the tournament games, and other related events, such as the auction, behind the scenes and highlights. The rights were acquired by the corporation for 935-crores (US$120.12 million).

Draft system

Bangladesh Premier League draft system works in two different ways. First is the traditional draft system, where each team can pick players through draft similar to National Football League (NFL). However, the team can only pick players listed in the draft roster. The second choice is player-by-choice system, where team management can pick players without any intervention from the tournament governing committee, in a private contract. For the first two season of the tournament, the salary-spending cap 15 crores (US$2.0 million), during the third season, salary spending cap was limit to 8 crores (US$900,000) for draft picks and unlimited for private contracts. Shahid Afridi is currently the most expensive player with a salary of 5.50 crores (US$700,000) during the first season of the tournament, while Chris Gayle was bought for US$35,000 per match during the third season, with overall salary exceeding 1.65 crores(US$210,000) for the playoffs.Each team have the right to pick eight overseas players, with four allowed to make into the playing XI. The players are sorted into five different categories: Icon, and Grade A-D.

Grounds

Bangladesh currently have nine International cricket grounds across the country. Among them, a total of four grounds have been used till date. Home-Away system wasn't used for first three seasons as the matches were hosted only in three cities. The tournament management committee have revealed their intention to use at least five grounds during the fourth season of the tournament.

Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium hosted the most number of BPL games till date.

Name of the stadium	Capacity	City	Home team
Current Grounds
SBNCS, Mirpur	25,500	Dhaka	Dhaka Dynamites (until 2017)
Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium	22,000	Chittagong	Chittagong Vikings
MA Aziz Stadium	30,000	Chittagong	Chittagong Vikings
Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium	15,000	Khulna	Khulna Royal Bengals
Proposed Grounds
Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium	25,000	Fatullah	Dhaka Dynamites (alternate venue)
Sylhet International Cricket Stadium	22,000	Sylhet	Sylhet Super Stars
Shaheed Chandu Stadium	15,000	Bogra	Duronto Rajshahi
Shaheed Kamruzzaman Stadium	15,000	Rajshahi	Duronto Rajshahi
Grounds Under Construction
Sheikh Kamal International Stadium	100,000	Cox's Bazar	Chittagong Vikings
Purbachal International Cricket Arena	70,000	Purbachal	Dhaka Dynamites (beginning 2017)

Rules

There are five ways that a franchise can acquire a player. In the annual auction, buying domestic players, signing uncapped players, through trading and buying replacements. In the trading window players can only be traded with his consent. The franchise will have to pay the difference between the old contract price and the new contract price. If the new contract is worth more than the older one then the difference will be shared between the player and the franchise selling the player.

• Each team will consist of at least 16 players, one physiotherapist and a coach.
• Maximum of 8 international players, up to 4 of which will be allowed to play in a match.
• Each team must contain at least one Associate player, reflecting on Bangladesh's own history as an Associate. A total of six Associate players have been signed, one each by the six franchises.
• A minimum of two uncapped players must be included in each squad.

Player records

Runs

Rank	Player	Runs
1	Mushfiqur Rahim	831
2	Brad Hodge	756
3	Shakib Al Hasan	692
4	Mahmudullah Riyad	690
5	Ahmed Shehzad	690
7	Nasir Hossain	689
8	Anamul Haque	674
9	Mohammad Ashraful	616
10	Jahurul Islam	613

Wickets

Rank	Player	Wickets
1	Kevin Cooper	49
2	Shakib Al Hasan	48
3	Mosharraf Hossain	36
4	Arafat Sunny	32
5	Enamul Haque Jr.	31
6	Abdur Razzak	30
7	Mohammad Sami	28
8	Azhar Mahmood	28
9	Elias Sunny	27
10	Mohammad Nabi	25

Sixes

Rank	Player	Sixes
1	Chris Gayle	50
2	Brad Hodge	32
3	Ahmed Shehzad	28
4	Nasir Hossain	27
5	Anamul Haque	27
6	Mushfiqur Rahim	24
7	Dwayne Smith	22
8	Ryan ten Doeschate	22
9	Azhar Mahmood	22
10	Imrul Kayes	22

Games Played

Rank	Player	Games
1	Mahmudullah Riyad	37
2	Anamul Haque	36
3	Sabbir Rahman	36
4	Mashrafe Mortaza	34
5	Mushfiqur Rahim	34
6	Nasir Hossain	34
7	Shakib Al Hasan	34
8	Arafat Sunny	33
9	Mominul Haque	33
10	Jahurul Islam	32

See also

• Bangladesh Super Soccer League
• Indian Premier League
• Pakistan Super League

External links

• Bangladesh Premier League Official Website