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Rangpur Riders and Sylhet Sunrisers have shown an interest in buying franchises for the upcoming three seasons of the Bangladesh Premier League, while Minister Group and Fortune Barishal are not likely to get involved with the Twenty20 tournament again.
On August 2, Bangladesh Cricket Board published an advertisement seeking Expression of Interest for the franchise ownership right of the BPL. After 2019, the BCB will once again sell the franchise rights for three years after operating the teams themselves for two seasons.
Shakib Al Hasan’s move from Dhaka Dynamites to Rangpur Riders created a fallout between the Beximco-owned Dhaka and the other six franchise owners in 2019, resulting in a complete overhaul. The BCB stopped giving franchise ownership rights and owned all the teams, which were operated through sponsorship.
The tournament was named Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League. Five out of seven teams got sponsors, while the other two were run by BCB.
In 2021, BCB put the ownership rights for six teams of BBPL on sale for just one season. But after that, BCB president Nazmul Hossain said several times that they were planning to give the ownership rights for a longer period so that the teams can plan better. Following the president’s words, BCB has once again given the franchises a prolonged period to work things out in a better way.
Therefore, some of the old franchise owners are interested to rejoin, while some are not interested as they did not find it fruitful.
Rangpur Riders, a franchise owned by the leading corporate group Basundhara, gained much popularity and success as they picked global T20 stars like Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum, and Lasith Malinga in their team and won the trophy in 2017.
Tasvir-ul-Islam, head of operations of Rangpur Riders, told The Business Post that they are ready to ride again.
“Yes, we have seen the advertisement. Hopefully, we will come back. Our top management is very positive about appearing in the BPL once again. Now we will do the paperwork, and if BCB finds us competent, we want to take part in the BPL again,” he said on Wednesday.
With a new deal, companies will be able to change their city names, but Tasvir said they would stick with Rangpur.
“We will stick with Rangpur as we have been successful,” said the Rangpur Riders official.
But Pragati Group, owner of Sylhet Sunrisers during the BBPL 2021, would like to have the name of Padma Division if they got a franchise, Sheikh Ibtihaz Joy, Managing Director of the Pragati Green Auto Rice Mills Ltd, informed.
“We are also very interested to own a BPL franchise for the next three years. The advertisement just came in, and we have some paperwork to work on. If BCB permits us, we want to take the name of the Padma Division instead of Sylhet. If there are any restrictions, we are fine with Sylhet as there is a venue, and we can get some home crowd,” he told The Business Post.
Minister Group, a local electronics manufacturing company, first appeared in the cricket scenario in 2020 when they owned a team in the Bangabandhu Twenty20 Cup, a domestic T20 tournament without international cricketers organised instead of BPL due to the pandemic.
In 2021, the Minister Group sponsored the Dhaka franchise. After two stints, they are not willing to stick with cricket.
“Running a BPL team is very expensive. It takes crores. Right now, we don’t have the luxury to run a BPL team, but maybe the top management will change their mind at the last moment,” said Sohel Kibria, head of brand and communications of Minister Group.
Minister Dhaka had players like Tamim Iqbal, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, and Mahmudullah Riyad in their team, but Sohel said their star value hardly impacted sales growth.
“There is no way to measure the direct impact. We got involved with cricket for branding purposes. BPL gave us some mileage, but the cost is huge. There was no surge in sales for BPL in particular,” Kibria said on Wednesday.
Fortune Barishal also appeared first in the Bangabandhu T20 Cup and then also operated a franchise in the BBPL 2021. Chairman of Fortune Group, Mizanur Rahman, told The Business Post that they are also uninterested in a return.
“Only the companies who can make a profit or have a big purse for expenditure can pick teams in BPL. As a business concern, BPL is not a good venture as the BCB is not sharing any revenue with the participating teams. Then why will a company invest? It takes Tk 20-25 crores to run a team that can fight for the title. We are not interested at this moment, but if our terms and conditions match, we might reconsider,” Mizan told The Business Post.
BCB will give away the franchise ownership rights of seven teams for the upcoming three seasons.
The last date for submitting the EOI is August 30, 2022. Companies related to tobacco, alcohol (surrogated and non-surrogated), betting, and online betting are not eligible.
