The BPL short for Bangladesh Premier League started in 2011. Bangladesh Cricket Board formed it. Earlier it had the 2009/10 National Cricket League Twenty20. But, the Board suspended it. BPL is a well-attended premier league in the world. In fact, it is the 16th number all over the world.
Playing Format
There were seven franchises at the beginning of the Bangladesh Premier League. The first is the league stage. in which, each team faces the rest of the teams twice. After this stage, there are playoffs. Only four of the teams enter the playoffs. This is a single-match elimination stage. Therefore, two teams qualify for the finals. And then in the final match qualifier1 and qualifier2 play. Thus, we get the winner.
History
Bangladesh Cricket Board witnessed that the Indian Premier League is a huge success all over the world. So, they decided to go for a similar cricket league in their country. The first deal was 350 crores and it was a 6-year contract and signed with Game on Sports Group. They got the rights to the tournament. At the beginning, there were six franchises and in total, thirteen companies had been part of the auction.
Annual Editions
Till date, there are eight editions of BPL. It started from 2012 till 2022. Following are some of the key details of all the seasons, as per the year.
2012
This was the first edition of the Bangladesh Premier League. It started on 9 February, 2022. The first match was in the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka.
2013
This was the second season of the Bangladesh Premier League. A seventh team was added this season. It was “Rangpur Riders”. The winner of this season was Dhaka Gladiator. Sadly, the issue of match fixing came into the limelight. And, the franchise owners of Dhaka Gladiators were suspended. Some of the players were banned too.
2014-2015
After the match fixing issue. There was a delay of a year in the season. The Bangladesh Premier League didn’t happen in 2014. They found some new franchises too. And when all things were in place. League came back in action in the year 2015. Comilla Victorians were the actual victorians this year. And, this year too. One of the franchises called Sylhet Super Stars was suspended. However two new franchises were added. Those were Khulna Titans and Rajasthan Kings, The number of teams was seven again.
2016
Surprisingly, Dhaka Gladiators were the winners again. This was their third time lifting the trophy of Bangladesh Premier League.
2017
There were changes in names of the franchises this season. Such as Sylhet franchise changed to Sylhet Sixers. Their new owners did this. Also, there were some financial issues with the Barisal Bulls. Hence, this led to their suspension.
2018
This was the 6th successful season of the Bangladesh Premier League. Comillo Victorians won the title for the second time.
2019
The seventh edition was played in September 2019. There were some major and unexpected changes this season. Nazmul Hasan Papon, the President of BCB, decided to exclude all of the franchises from this season onwards and the Board took the complete charge. And the name of the tournament was also changed to Bangabandhu BPL T20 2019. This was to pay respect to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
The winner of the 2019 edition of Bangladesh Premier League was Rajshahi Royals.
2022
Coming to the eighth season of Bangladesh Premier League. The name remained unchanged. It was supposed to happen in March but, it was delayed to Jan-Feb 2022. During this season, Rupa steel and Marn Group owned Dhaka Gladiators. But, just a day before the drafting of players. There was no compliance of rules by them. Hence, they lost their ownership over Dhaka Gladiators. After the drafting part was over, the Minister Group became the owner.
Camilla Victorians won this time too and this was their third Bangladesh Premier League winner title. Fortune Barishal was the player of the tournament. He scored 284 runs in the whole tournament. Also, he took 16 wickets.
At the end…
Above is the detailed info regarding Bangladesh Premier League. It covered how the idea originated and how the league started. And of course what is the current scenario of the BPL.
Will be back soon with more of such articles. Till then, be safe.
