The Bangladesh Premier League has long featured spectacular performances from global stars such as Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers, but the country’s only franchise tournament has consistently struggled to attract marquee foreign players due to the rise of franchise leagues around the world and recruitment issues.
The 11th edition of the BPL was marred by off-field scandals, including mismanagement of the teams and payment delays, which overshadowed the on-field activities.
On the brighter side, local players got more exposure and flourished amid the crisis of overseas cricketers, occupying the majority of the batting and bowling charts.
Nine of the local batters were in the top 10 chart, which is the first instance in BPL history. Khulna Tigers’ opener Mohammad Naim became the top-scorer with 511 runs in 14 matches, including a hundred.
In the bowling chart, Taskin Ahmed topped the list with 25 wickets, the most by any player in BPL history. Among the top 10 bowlers, only three were foreigners.
Naim was inarguably in the best form of his career in this season. He was the top scorer of the NCL T20 with 316 runs and carried that form in the BPL to become the second Bangladeshi to score 500 runs in a single edition after Najmul Hossain Shanto’s 516 runs in the 2022-23 season.
Mehidy Hasan Miraz has been consistent as an all-rounder as he finished eighth on the batting chart with 355 runs and also claimed 13 wickets, which earned him the Player of the Tournament award.
As a captain, he led Khulna to the playoffs, who were the most stable side with their local cricketers throughout the tournament.
Khulna leaned on local talents, with Mahidul Islam Ankon scoring 316 runs, while Nasum Ahmed and Hasan Mahmud played crucial roles with the ball.
Khulna, eventually, were eliminated in qualifier-2 against Chittagong Kings, despite the last-minute additions of West Indies duo Shimron Hetmyer and Jason Holder.
Talha Jubair, head coach of Khulna, affirmed that the local players’ performances were key to the team’s success.
‘Our local collection was fantastic. We lost momentum along the way, but the local players did better than foreign players,’ Talha said.
Nazmul Abedin Fahim, the member secretary of the BPL governing council, was pleased with the young players’ performances.
‘In this BPL, we saw our local players judge the game very well. They had the knack to finish the game on their own. It’s a positive outcome of our BPL,’ he said on Sunday.
Runners-up Chittagong were also highly reliant on the local cricketers combined with veterans like Naeem Islam, and Mohammad Mithun. Their mystery spinner, Aliss Al Islam, and Khaled Ahmed were also in top form.
Aliss took 15 wickets and played a crucial role with the bat in the second qualifier, striking the decisive boundary that led Chittagong to the first final since 2013, despite incurring an ACL injury.
Pacer Khaled was the best bowler for Chittagong with 20 wickets.
Apart from them, Tanzid Tamim, Zakir Hasan, Shamim Hossain, Parvez Emon and Liton Das were in the top 10 batting chart.
Meanwhile, veteran Tamim Iqbal, who announced his international retirement midway through the tournament, guided his side to consecutive BPL titles, being one of the highest run scorers of the tournament.
The left-handed opener amassed 413 runs, including a match-winning 54 off 29 balls in the final, helping his side chase down Chattogram’s 195-run target.
Tamim was impressed with the overall performance of the young cricketers and insisted everyone to support them in the forthcoming Champions Trophy.
‘Please support the team. The players are young; they will make mistakes. But this is your team. There should be no individual loyalties—just support for Bangladesh,’ Tamim said upon receiving a special memento from the BCB before the award-giving ceremony.
Among the overseas players, Chittagong’s Graham Clark, Rangpur Rider’s Khushdil Shah, and Fortune Barishal’s Faheem Ashraf were among the few who made an impact.