Controversies, apparently, can hardly remain away from the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) T-20 tournament, the world's second most watched T20 cricket league.
During the maiden tournament of the BPL, which was launched by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), in 2012, Mashrafe Mortaza, then captain of Dhaka Gladiators, one of the franchises that represented Dhaka City, had informed his team management of the possibility of spot-fixing by a fellow cricketer.
 Investigation later found one player guilty and banned him. In March 2013, the BCB also banned for 10 years umpire Nadir Shah when string operation by an Indian TV channel had found him willing to fix match in exchange for money.
Later in 2013 investigation into an allegation of match fixing by an ICC probe team found Mohammad Ashraful, youngest centurion in test history, guilty of match fixing. In 2014 the BCB banned him for eight years. The ban was later reduced to five years with two years suspended.
In 2014, there was no BPL tournament for technical reasons. Any allegation about match-fixing has not surfaced until now centring the tournament held between November 22 and December 15 of 2015.
But allegations of tax evasion and money laundering have surfaced this time and those have already hit headlines.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) says that it has not received tax revenue against the fees paid to foreign players. A total of 65 players from a number of countries, including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, England, West Indies and Zimbabwe played in the immediate past BPL tournament.
With a view to receiving the tax money, the NBR reportedly wrote on three occasions to the BCB in the months of November and December last. But the BCB did not respond to those, the NBR has claimed.
Now the NBR has formed a 15-member committee, headed by one of its tax commissioners, to look into the issue. The committee would collect information about the deals that six franchises had struck with the individual foreign players and recommend actions. The BCB, being the controlling authority of the tournament, is supposed to ensure collection of tax at source against the payments made to foreign players at the rate of 30 per cent each and deposit of the same with the public exchequer.
It has not been disclosed publicly how much in foreign exchange the six franchises did pay to the foreign players for the 2015 BPL. However, the amount could be between $1.5 million and $2.0 million. In the auction held to net in foreign players, the ceiling fixed for category A players was $78,000, for category B players $50,000, category C players $40,000 and category D players $30,000. However, Chris Gayle, the West Indian hard-hitting batsman, according to the Wikipedia, was fetched by the Barisal Bulls at $180,000.
The BCB's failure to respond to the NBR's repeated written communications smacks of irresponsible behaviour on the part of a national sports organisation. The BCB should have ensured the collection of income tax while making payments to the foreign players. The amount, no doubt, is small. But the collection of it does indicate alertness of an organisation like the BCB to the national cause.
It does appear from the statements made by the BCB top notches, the foreign players have been paid in full by now. But a high official of the country's central bank says that only nine players on recommendations from the BCB had got clearance for transferring their match fees out of Bangladesh. So, what is about the remaining 56 players? How did they transfer their funds?
Anyone transferring funds from Bangladesh abroad without permission from the central bank is an offence under the Anti-Money Laundering Act.
In addition to allegations that do often surface about match-fixing either by officials or players, it does appear from the latest developments that there are many more grey areas in the BPL tournament.
Cricket is a game that is now very much loved by the Bangladeshis. The recent performance of Bangladesh team in ICC ODI cricket championship and matches held at home against a number of cricket playing countries has made the game even more popular.
It is expected that the men in-charge of the affairs of the BCB would behave rationally and in a responsible manner. They need to be particularly careful about stopping new scams and controversies from surfacing since those tend to lessen the intense love the people have for cricket.
zahidmar10@gmail.com
BPL T20: Controversies of different variety
Shamsul Huq Zahid | Published: January 06, 2016 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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