The Bangladesh Premier League is set to begin on December 19 with five teams, as the governing council of the tournament confirmed the five franchises for the next five editions on Tuesday.聽
Three companies were snubbed from the remaining eight who had submitted the Expressions of Interest after the final step of the review process.聽
Toggy Sports for Rangpur, Triangle Services for Chattogram, Champion Sports for Dhaka, Nabil Group for Rajshahi, and Cricket with Sami for Sylhet were announced as the five franchises getting the nod from the BCB.聽
Desh Travels (Rajshahi), Akashbari Holidays (Barishal), and SS Group Ten Twelve Sports (Cumilla) were snubbed.聽
This will be the first time that the BPL will be held with five teams. The previous lowest was six, with the last edition being held with seven teams.聽
The BCB earlier stated that they were willing to hold the BPL even with four to five teams after many setbacks with the players and support staff鈥檚 payments in the last edition.聽
However, the team names were yet to be finalised. But the franchise owners of Rangpur and Dhaka participated in previous editions.聽
鈥極ur target is to organise the tournament between December 19 and January 16,鈥� said Iftekhar Rahman, the member secretary of the BPL governing council.聽
Iftekhar also reiterated that the franchises must give a bank guarantee of TK 10 crore in order to stay to take part in the players鈥� draft, supposedly to be held on November 17.聽
The chairman of cricket operations of BCB, Nazmul Abedeen Fahim, said that they would set the schedule, keeping the interest of the national team in their minds.
He said, 鈥榃e have some things in consideration: the upcoming Ireland series, the BPL, and the T20 World Cup. The team needs enough rest before the World Cup; we also have that in mind.鈥�
The contracts of the previous franchises ended last season with the marking of the end of that cycle.