About BPL
Bangladesh Premier League is also known as BPL cricket tournament. This tournament is one of the most popular domestic professional cricket tournaments in Bangladesh. There are some other domestic professional leagues in Bangladesh and BPL is one of the popular ones. Basically, there are three domestic professional cricket leagues held in Bangladesh and BPL is the most popular one in the country. The format of cricket in this league is twenty20 and it was formed by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) in 2011 after the successful seasons of Indian Premier Leagues and some popular leagues of the world. Bangladesh Premier League or BPL is not only popular in Bangladesh but also it is watched by cricket lovers all around the world. It is at the 16th position in the list of most popular cricket tournaments in the world, according to the International Cricket Council’s records. A total number of seven teams used to take part in this league. Most of the viewers of BPL are Asian people, but still, it is broadcasted in the other continents and countries due to huge popularity in the world. BPL has six participating teams and these six teams represent various cities in Bangladesh.
Foundation, Format & Teams
BPL or Bangladesh Premier League was not merchandise or franchise-based cricket league in its initial days. It was a simple domestic cricket league held in Bangladesh for the promotion of cricket. But after the huge success of the commercial premier leagues held in other countries like Indian Premier League, the Bangladesh Cricket Board decided to commercialize this cricket league. Before it’s reformation in 2011, it was known as National Cricket League Twenty20. Bangladesh Cricket Board decided to reformat this cricket league and they decided to make it a commercialized twenty20 league. In 2011 they announced the BPL as one of the top professional cricket leagues. Next year in 2012, the first season of BPL was held in Bangladesh. The format of this tournament is Round-robin and Playoffs. It is played in November month of the year. There are a total number of seven teams that take part in this tournament. In 2020, the tournament was postponed or rejected by the Bangladesh Cricket Board due to COVID-19 pandemic. Participating teams in this tournament are Chattogram Challengers, Comilla Warriors, Dhaka Platoon, Khulna Tigers, Rajshahi Royals, Rangpur Rangers, Sylhet Thunder, and Barisal Bulls, etc.
Sponsors
There are different sponsors for the different seasons of this tournament. Bangladesh Premier League is no longer known as Bangladesh Premier League. Now it is known as Bangabandhu BPL or BPL 7. In 2019, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) declared to acquire the ownership of all the franchise teams. Bangladesh Cricket Board decided to take over the ownership of teams and the whole tournament. It decided to organize the whole tournament on its own, without paying or charging anything from the external sponsors. This edition was also known as the special edition of the tournament. After this tournament, the BCB named this tournament Bangabandhu BPL. Before this decision, all the teams of BPL were having different franchise owners. For example team Chattogram Challengers had Akhtar Group as the sponsor, Bangladesh Cricket Board was a sponsor for Comilla Warriors, Premier Bank Limited was a sponsor for Khulna Tigers, and Givani Footwear was a sponsor for Sylhet Thunder.
Prize Pool & Revenue
Different prizes were there for different category teams. The first prize was $100,000, second prize for the runner up team was $70,000, third prize for the second runner up was $50,000, the team at the fourth position was offered $30,000 as prize money. And the team at the fifth position was offered prize money of $20,000. Along with this, there are different prize money offered to the various other individual awards such as man of the matches and man of the tournament.
Top Teams & Players
The current champion of this tournament is Rajshahi Royals. Rajshahi Royals won this tournament for the first time. However, the most successful team of this tournament is a Franchise of Dhaka. This team won the winner’s title 3 times. The most scoring batsman of this tournament is Mushfiqur Rahim. He has scored around 2274 runs in this tournament. On the other side, Shakib Al Hasan is the top-performing bowler of this tournament. He has got 106 wickets in this tournament.
