No BPL in 2020

Bangladesh's critical Covid-19 pandemic situation has forced the Bangladesh Cricket Board(BCB) to postpone the 2020-21 season of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) to next year, report agencies.

According to BCB president Nazmul Hassan, the board's primary difficulty in organising the tournament this year is to host overseas players and broadcast personnel in an environment that is currently deemed unsafe.

This week the board took ginger steps into resuming competitive cricket in the country with a three-team 50-overtournament, which is being held inside a bio-bubble entirely.

BCB president Nazmul Hassan saidon Sunday there will be no Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) this year due to the circumstances created by the Covid-19 pandemic.

He, however, also said that the Dhaka Premier Division League (DPDCL) might take place if the ongoing BCB President's Cup and a proposed T20 league go well abiding by the Covid-19 health protocol.

Hassan, who ruled out hosting the BPL outside Bangladesh due to high costs, said the board might feel confident of hosting a substantial band of foreigners once the pandemic situation improves in the country.

"Everything depends on the conditions and circumstances but we are not holding the BPL this year," Hassan said. "We are looking at next year, but we also don't want to give up on any tournaments. With BPL comes the need for foreign players and production people [to travel to Bangladesh]. I don't know if we can handle so many people in a tournament as large as the BPL."

Hassan also said that during the BCB's discussions around the T20 tournament in November, there was a strong argument in favour of not allowing overseas cricketers.

"We're discussing [the involvement] of foreign players and no final decision has been taken," he said. "If we can bring foreign players then it's good but it's not like we must bring them. Our first priority is to create opportunity for local players to play

"We're looking to see which foreign players are available and what their quality would be. It could be that a local player might be better than a foreign player. We don't want to keep our local players out and play foreign stars. We have to first understand the standard of [foreign] players who might be coming."

"I think hosting an event like BPL will not be easy for us in Bangladesh. We know that most of the franchisees have to tackle many problems to run a team of BPL. And the bio-secure bubble which has been put in place in England and UAE (for IPL) is not possible in Bangladesh. I think it's not possible for our franchisees to spend that much money to secure a high-quality bio-secure bubble for the teams," Nazmul added.

Before the ongoing BCB President's Cup, the last competitive game in Bangladesh took place back in March this year. It means there was no game of cricket in the country for more than six months. This year's DPDCL has been postponed in March indefinitely. However, BCB president says they might go ahead with the plan of continuing the DPDCL this year.

"We have discussed the possibility to host the DPDCL this year. Most of us agreed that it's possible. But we have to keep everything in mind. We have to make a detailed plan so that we can think about the possible problems and solutions. The biggest challenge is to put a big bio-secure bubble and keep the players and the team management in a secure environment, which we will do for the proposed T20 league. Our clubs are unable to accommodate their team in an expensive hotel. So we have discussed BKSP as the possible venue, where all the team can stay and play in three different fields. You will come to know within a few days what we are thinking about DPDC," Nazmul further told the media.

Earlier, many cricketers, who are highly dependent on their income from the domestic leagues, requested BCB to host domestic events so that they can earn and tackle the Covid-19 pandemic situation. Along with them, Cricketers' Welfare Association of Bangladesh (CWAB) also urged BCB to come up with a way to host the domestic events.