Home ›› 20 Feb 2022 ›› Sport
The 2022 edition of the Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League ended on Friday as Comilla Victorians won a tense final against Fortune Barishal by the barest of margins to lift the trophy.
The nerve-wracking final, which Cumilla won by one run, was the best piece of the action on the pitch of this season, but like all its predecessors, this BPL had a continuous flow of off-field issues that kept piling up headlines.
It started with the Dhaka franchise’s ownership change the night before the players’ draft and continued with Chattogram Challengers’ internal row which saw Mehidy Hasan Miraz lose his captaincy.
Then, Sylhet Sunrisers also had a questionable captaincy change, and the tournament was capped off with Shakib Al Hasan, the Barishal skipper and the player of the tournament, missing the pre-final captain’s photoshoot to shoot an advertisement.
The Business Post rounds up all these controversies after a jampacked BPL, well, jampacked off the field.
Dhaka’s ownership oddity
The Bangladesh Cricket Board, before the start of this year’s BPL, announced the owning companies of the six franchises. Rupa Fabrics Ltd & Marn Steel Ltd (Consortium) were announced as the owners of the Dhaka franchise, but on the night before the players’ draft, BCB announced that the consortium had failed to pay the bills in time and thus was stripped of ownership.
BCB took charge of the team in the draft and went on to pick Tamim Iqbal and Mashrafe Mortaza, besides automatic choice Mahmudullah Riyad in the draft. Later, Minister Group took upon the franchise, and the team was named Minister Dhaka.
Despite the team’s combined experience, Dhaka failed to make it to the playoffs as they finished fifth among six teams after the league stage ended.
Chattogram’s captaincy conundrum
During the Chattogram phase of the BPL, Chattogram Challengers suddenly announced before their match against Sylhet that Naeem Islam had replaced Mehidy Hasan Miraz as their skipper.
It led to an outburst from Miraz, who said that he would not be playing for the franchise anymore and left the team hotel. He pointed fingers at Chattogram COO Syed Yasir Ali and said he would not be playing for Chattogram if he was involved with the team.
Later, everything was sorted via negotiation, and the BCB hearing found that Miraz was informed well before the match, not just three hours before the match as he claimed. Miraz was offered captaincy again, but he refused.
Naeem, who had replaced Miraz, did not last long as skipper as Afif Hossain took over later in the tournament.
Shady skipper change from Sylhet
There was a surprise just before the match between Sylhet and Khulna on February 7, as Ravi Bopara walked out for the coin flip instead of Mosaddek Hossain.
The change in captaincy was not announced beforehand by Sylhet. Later, they explained that Mosaddek had asked for it. But the change was questioned as the duty did not fall on Anamul Haque, the vice-captain, and went to Bopara, who later got three demerit points for ball-tampering.
There have been claims in the national media about Mosaddek’s involvement in spot-fixing during the tournament.
BCB President Nazmul Hassan though dismissed the claims of fixing. He said, “There has to be a complaint before an investigation. We don’t have any such information. There are anti-corruption units in place from us and ICC for such events. But nothing has come through yet. We slander ourselves. This is our problem.”
The Photo-session fiasco
As per ritual, the two captains participate in a photo session before the final of the BPL. But this time around, Barishal informed that Shakib, Barishal’s skipper, will not be attending the photoshoot due to an upset stomach, and vice-captain Nurul Hasan Sohan would be replacing him.
But Sohan later told the media that he saw Shakib hitting the gym, and so did Barishal head coach Khaled Mahmud.
But later, it was revealed that Shakib was busy shooting an advertisement for the soft drink ‘7UP’ instead of attending the photoshoot.
The BCB President said after the final that his side Barishal were shown a show-cause notice for Shakib leaving the MEE.
“The franchises were given all the responsibilities to maintain the protocol. The franchise (Barishal) were given a show cause letter today inquiring about how he (Shakib) went on to breaking the bio bubble,” Nazmul said.
He added, “We have given clear instructions to all the franchises on how to maintain the bio-secure bubble. As they breached the protocol, they were given a show-cause letter, and I think the franchise should be held responsible for this, and it is totally unacceptable.”
