Bangladesh Premier League: Bangladesh Premier League on February 9

Bangladesh Premier League: Bangladesh Premier League on February 9: The first edition of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) will kick off on February 9, 2012 with the final to be played on February 29. The...

2012 Bangladesh Premier League

The 2012 Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) season will be the first season of the Bangladesh Premier League. The season will commence on the 9th of February with the final to be played on the 29th of February.^[1]
The competition will start with a double round robin group stage, in which each of the 6 teams will play against every other team twice. These matches will followed by two semi-finals and a final.^[1]
The highest wicket taker will win the purple cap for being the top wicket-taking bowler while the highest run scorer will win the orange cap for leading run-scorer in the tournament. Best young player will be awarded the best under-19 player award and the special award for Fair Play will be won by the team who will play most fairly throughout the tournament.
Matches will be held in Dhaka and Chittagong with a total of six franchises taking part. The franchises will represent Dhaka, Barisal, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Sylhet and Khulna divisions. The franchise auction was held on January 10^[2] and the player auction will take place on 18 and 19 January.^[1] Each franchise will have to spend between US$2 million and US$5 million at the player auction.
On 21 December, the event Management Company bought the tournament title for six years for 44.33 million dollars, or at 354 crores.

Cricket-Pakistan's Afridi top prize in Bangladesh Twenty20 auction

Jan 19 (Reuters) - Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi was the hottest property in an auction held for the inaugural Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) Twenty20 tournament on Thursday, but English spinner Monty Panesar and former South African batsman Herschelle Gibbs failed to attract bids. 


Afridi was sold to the Dhaka franchise for $700,000 after some intense bidding involving five of the six franchises for the Feb. 10-28 tournament, which is based on the successful Indian Premier League model.
The all-rounder, however, will only be available for the final two days of the opening BPL campaign as he is on national team duty against England in the United Arab Emirates. 

Tournament organizers said the money would be given to the players proportionately for the matches they are available.
Quick-scoring West Indian batsman Chris Gayle, who is available from Feb. 14, was another to attract attention with Barisal paying $551,000 for him.
His compatriots Marlon Samuels and Kieron Pollard also created a stir as they were sold for $360,000 and $300,000 to Rajshahi and Dhaka franchises respectively.
A total of 111 overseas players and 80 local cricketers were put on auction with teams given a maximum budget of $2million and able to buy no more than eight overseas players.
Pakistan's Shoaib Malik (Chittagong $150,000) West Indies' Dwayne Bravo (Chittagong $150,000), Australia's Brad Hodge (Barisal $140,000), Sri Lanka's Sanath Jayasuriya (Rajshahi $110,000) and Muttiah Muralitharan (Chittagong $100,000) were among others to go for big money.
No Indian players were included in the auction.
Along with Panesar and Gibbs, New Zealand's Scott Styris and Lou Vincent failed to attract a buyer.
Ireland's wicketkeeper-batsman Niall O'Brien was the most expensive player from the associate nations with Khulna paying $80,000 for the batsman.
Bangladesh internationals Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mohammad Ashraful, Shahriar Nafees and Alok Kapali had been selected as icon players for six franchises and were excluded from auction.
All-rounder Nasir Hossain was the most-sought-after Bangladeshi in the auction with Khulna sealing his signature for $200,000.
India-based Game On Sports Management will run the tournament after winning the bid from the Bangladesh Cricket Board for six years for $44.33 million.
(Reporting by Azad Majumder. Editing by Patrick Johnston. To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)
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BPL franchise ownership finalized

The six franchises of the Bangladesh Premier League 2011 has been finalized today at the bidding program held at the Westin Dhaka. The program observed one minute silence in remembrance of BCB CEO Manzur Ahmed who passed away this morning.

Bangladesh Premier League on February 9

The first edition of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) will kick off on February 9, 2012 with the final to be played on February 29. The 20-day tournament will feature six teams that will play each other twice each in a round-robin format over 33 matches to be held in Chittagong and Dhaka.

Teams will be allowed to field five foreign players in their XIs, as opposed to four in the IPL. Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo and Kamran Akmal are among at least 25 foreign players who have made themselves available for the tournament.

"The main thing is the Bangladesh players have to be available," Arun Lal, a consultant to Game on Sports, the tournament organisers, and also a former India opener, told ESPNcricinfo.

As in the first season of the IPL, each team will have an icon player. The Bangladesh Cricket Board announced yesterday that Tamim Iqbal will be the icon player for Chittagong, Mohammad Ashraful for Dhaka, Alok Kapali for Sylhet, Shahriar Nafees for Barisal, Mushfiqur Rahim for Rajshahi and Shakib Al Hasan for Khulna. The players will be paid 5% more than the amount received by the highest paid player of each franchise.

The franchise auction will take place on January 5, either in Dhaka or the sea-side town of Cox's Bazar. Companies wishing to bid for a franchise will submit their offers on the same day, and bids will be opened in front of all those present, with the franchises going to the highest bidder. The player auction is scheduled to take place 10 days later. Each team will have to spend a minimum of US $2 million and can spend up to a maximum of $5 million.

The BPL will be televised on a new sports channel in Bangladesh and the organisers are believed to be in discussions with Ten Sports to broadcast the tournament in India. However, India's domestic 50-over tournament begins on February 20 and therefore could restrict Indian participation. "India is a problem," Lal said. "In the first six or eight games, they [India players] could play."

The organisers are also hoping that the winner of the BPL will be given a place in the Champions League Twenty20 next year.

Game on Sports paid US$44.3 million for the rights to the BPL for six years.