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Frequent changes in the operating rules and franchise ownership have heavily dented the brand value of the Bangladesh Premier League, which started in 2012 but failed to create a global appeal.
The inception of the Indian Premier League in 2008 was a watershed moment in the history of cricket that changed the game completely. Following the IPL model, many cricket boards launched their franchise-based T20 leagues.
The BCB launched BPL with few claps for an early start because the Pakistan Cricket Board launched Pakistan Super League in 2015 and the West Indian Cricket Board introduced the Caribbean Premier League in 2013.
BCB officials often say that BPL is the next most attractive franchise tournament after the IPL. In an interview, BCB Director Obaid Nizam told The Business Post, "BPL is right up there, behind IPL. We formulated BPL in Bangladesh after watching the IPL’s formation."
But in reality, BPL is far behind.
At present, both PSL and CPL are considered one of the leading choices for cricketers and advertisers, whereas BPL struggles to find franchise owners.
Experts believe that persistent change in the franchise ownership, operating procedure, and an ever-changing schedule hamstring BPL while other franchise leagues thrive.
IPL sold two new franchises for more than Rs 12,000 crore, PSL sold their TV rights for two years for $24 million, but there were not many interested parties to buy a franchise in BPL.
Top local business houses like Bashundhara Group, Beximco, and Gemcon, heavily involved in sports and previously owned BPL franchises, did not show any interest to take up a franchise for the Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League T20 2022, starting from January 21.
BCB has sold the ownership rights of six franchises of BBPL 2022 for a single edition, and BCB President Nazmul Hassan admitted that many companies did not show interest due to the short tenure.
The franchises were acquired by companies like Comilla Legends, Delta Sports, Fortune Shoes, Pragoti Green Auto Rice Mills Ltd, Mindtree, and Rupa Fabrics and Marn Steel Ltd (consortium), but unfortunately, their involvement will also come to an end after the upcoming edition as the rights were only sold for the 2022 edition.
That means there will be new teams with new names and management in the next BPL, which has been the case since 2012.
BPL has been staged in different shapes and sizes throughout the last decade. It started with six franchises from the six divisions- Dhaka, Chattogram, Khulna, Rajshahi, Sylhet, and Barishal. In the very next edition, Rangpur was added.
In the third edition, BCB went back to six teams again, but they allowed a team from Cumilla, which is not a division, but there was no team from the Rajshahi and Khulna divisions.
In the next year, Sylhet was excluded from the tournament, and BCB introduced two new franchises, Rajshahi and Khulna.
In the 2017-18 season, Barishal was excluded from the tournament due to financial terms and agreements, and Sylhet was brought back under a new name and management.
The 2018-19 edition was the last edition of BPL where franchises had total control over the team because since then, BCB took matters into their own hands. The contract with the franchises expired, and rather than signing a new contract, BCB decided to run the teams on their own by taking patrons or sponsors.
Therefore, the teams got scrambled again and appeared in a new face and name. Former CEO of Rajshahi Kings, Tahmeed Azizul Haque, told The Business Post that the franchises could not make long term plans due to continuous chopping and changing.
"If you look at BPL, you will find that in eight editions (including the upcoming one), it has eight different rules and set of teams. Sometimes the number of foreign players were set to five, sometimes it was reduced to four. You will see a franchise excluded, and at the same time, two new are getting included. There is no stability," he said.
Rajshahi Kings played in the BPL for three seasons, and Tahmeed said every year they faced a new challenge due to the frequent rules changes.
"From player retention to starting date, even the match-timings, everything was changed so frequently that we could not hold on to one particular plan. The world does not function like that. The schedule, the timing, and the rules must be well set because the franchises have to deal with their players, sponsors, stakeholders and co-ordinate all these aspects. Unfortunately, our experience with BPL was not like that," he said.
Sirajul A Shibley, Assistant Professor of Marketing at George Dean Johnson Jr. College of Business and Economics at the University of South Carolina upstate, told The Business Post why BPL failed to create a proper brand value.
"Brand means stability, trust, assurance. BPL misses the core competence because of its persistent changes. In any sports league, like the NFL or NBA or even the IPL, the principal rules are steady and firm, and the whole system works on that. But due to frequent changes, BPL now lacks credibility," he said.
Tahmeed also feels that due to frequent changes, the franchises are unable to build a brand image or fanbase, and most importantly, a business model.
"MS Dhoni in his Yellow jersey for Chennai Super Kings is also as iconic as he is for the India. And through CSK, India Cements (owner of Chennai Super Kings) also became a bigger brand. But in BPL, you will not see big companies or global brands coming," he said.
BPL, since its inception, has been marred with various anomalies like match-fixing, payment default issues, poor quality of broadcasting or even sex scandal.
Manchester United, Kolkata Knight Riders bought teams in the upcoming Emirates Premier League for a huge chunk of money. Like football, cricket franchises are also spreading wings as few of the IPL franchises also bought teams in the CPL, PSL team owners also bought the team in LPL.
But despite starting earlier, there have beenno interested parties for BPL and the major reason for that is trust issue which BPL lacks very much.
