BPL 2023 begins with controversy at backdrop
The Sylhet Strikers’ media manager had requested the media beforehand to keep Mashrafe Bin Mortaza’s question-answer session brief. However, the Sylhet Strikers captain’s press conference couldn’t remain brief.
However, Sylhet’s opening match of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) 2023 against Chattogram Challengers, which will be held on Friday at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, rarely came up at the press conference.
Mashrafe, the former national team captain, had to give his reaction to the scathing comments made by Shakib Al Hasan against BPL the previous day.
On Wednesday, at a corporate promotional event, Shakib heavily criticised the mismanagement of BPL. He said that Bangladesh has failed to market BPL across the world.
Mashrafe also echoed Shakib’s sentiment, saying, “Not just BPL, we need to make changes in every area. We only give importance to the upcoming event; once the tournament starts, we forget what happened before it began.
“No one (franchise) would want to continue its association if they can’t make a profit. Franchise owners are always taking a loss. The cricket board needs to pay attention to this.”
The 39-year-old, however, also reminded all the importance of BPL in Bangladesh cricket.
“In every season, once the tournament begins the matches are always good. There is good competition. Hopefully, this year too it will be a competitive tournament.”
In BPL, the Sylhet franchise has changed ownership repeatedly but has never tasted success.
This time, the franchise has put its faith on a local coaching panel and is hoping to change their fortunes. To achieve that goal, Mashrafe hopes to begin this year’s campaign with a victory.
The match against Chattogram will also be Mashrafe’s first competitive game after almost eight months. The pacer is the most successful captain in BPL history. On Friday, he will be joined at the coin toss by Shuvagata Hom, who will be captaining a team at the BPL for the first time.
Chattogram named Shuvagata as their captain at the very last moment. Chattogram’s last year’s captain Mehidy Hasan Miraz had a falling out with the management mid-season and at one point had threatened to leave the side for good.
But Shuvagata doesn’t want to think about what happened in the past, “I wasn’t here last season. So, I don’t know what exactly had happened. This year, we have a well balanced squad. The first match will be important. We want to start with a victory.”
Sylhet and Chattogram will play in the first match of the opening day. The second match will be a ‘high voltage’ encounter between defending champions Comilla Victorians and former champions Rangpur Riders.
Comilla is without their Pakistani cricketers, who are busy in the New Zealand series. But English batter Dawid Malan has already joined the Comilla team.
Comilla captain Imrul Kayes believes they can go all the way once again in 2023, “Comilla always builds a team that could become champions. This time too, we have the same intention. We will try to hold on to our title. But no matter how strong we are on paper, it wouldn’t mean anything if we don’t play good cricket on the field.”
Rangpur Riders are returning to BPL after two seasons, last appearing in the 2018-19 edition. Before their comeback season begins, the Riders have trained at their own ground in Bashundhara and even played a practice match.
Rangpur captain Nurul Hasan was a bit late for the photo-session of the captains at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on Thursday as he had to arrive at Mirpur from Bashundhara after completing a team practice session.
Just like the other captains, Nurul is also eyeing the trophy, “Definitely, we are hoping to become champions. I haven’t touched the trophy yet. I will only touch it if we can become champions. We have a young team. There are many all-rounders in the team. If we give our 100 per cent on the field, then inshallah, we can achieve something great.”