The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has received expressions of interest (EOIs) from 11 enterprises for the third edition of the Bangladesh Premier League, reports Cricinfo.
But no one who participated in the first two editions submitted their applications, after the BCB had terminated contracts with the seven franchises last year due to payment issues.
Afzalur Rahman Sinha, BPL governing council chairman, said that the new franchises have to pay BDT 10 million (1 crore) (USD 128,625) as a bank guarantee. They have also set a few subjective criteria, including involvement with sports at some capacity in the past.
The EOIs were received from DBL Group, Sohana Group of Industries, Beximco, BBS Cables, Blues Communications, Networld Bangladesh, Mediacom Limited, Index Group, Bengal Communications, Axiom Technology and Fiber@home Limited.
"The next step will be to scrutinise the interested parties," Sinha said at a press conference Tuesday. "We will speak to them [the bidders]. Those who are real sports lovers and were involved with various clubs and sports in the past will get priority."
Ismail Haider Mallick, the governing council's member-secretary, said that the process of choosing the new franchises should be completed within the next three weeks.
"We hope to start on November 22 or 25. Groundwork has been completed. We wanted to do the BPL with five teams but seeing the response it now seems we can start with seven teams.
"We hope to complete the processing for the new franchises by the first week of next month. They have submitted their expression of interest (EOI). We have already reduced the structure," he said.
Mallick added that those interested in owning a new team must understand that the business model of the BPL has reduced significantly, and it has to be run in a similar way to the way Dhaka clubs operate in the Dhaka Premier League (a domestic one-day tournament), but first they have to ensure the bank guarantee.
"The new franchise owners have to keep in mind that they can't do business here. They will be spending as much as a title-challenging Dhaka Premier League club does. They shouldn't expect anything in return. Those who are sports-oriented, will get preference. They will also have to meet some financial conditions. "Everyone says the right things when they are taking the franchise. That's why we have put a financial bar that they have to meet to reach the next stage," he said.
Mallick said that if the new franchise owners include any of the old defaulters, they will be asked to be removed. At the moment, BCB's legal unit is in arbitration with the previous franchises for recovering payments.
"We have said it time and again that we have financial dispute with seven franchises," he said. "It has gone to arbitration, not in our hands. Our legal department is handling the matter. Nobody has cleared their debts so they couldn't apply for a franchise.
