Bangladesh board keen on BPL third season

Despite a surfeit of controversies marring the first two seasons of the Bangladesh Premier League, the BCB is looking for a window in the coming season to host the league again. The second edition was held in January-February 2013, after which problems over player payment and a prolonged match-fixing investigation stalled the domestic T20 tournament.

At this stage, the November 2014 to January 2015 slot is being looked at by the BCB. Bangladesh are scheduled to take on Zimbabwe in a Test series in early November, while according to the Future Tours Programme (FTP), Pakistan are supposed to tour Bangladesh in January 2015.

"BCB is willing to stage the BPL," Ismail Haider Mallick, BPL governing council's member secretary, said. "We have selected an approximate date to hold the tournament. We are looking to arrange the tournament between November 2014 and January 2015. However, we of course have to see the international and local cricket's schedule first."

Mallick also said that the tournament's event management company, Game On Sports, have paid Tk 10 crore ($1.3 million) of the 19 crore (approx $2.45 million) it owed to the BPL, albeit in three parts. "Game On Sports has given a cheque worth Tk 10 crore. We already received Tk 2.5 crore (approx $323,000) and we will get another 2.5 crore by April 20 while we will be receiving the remaining Tk 5 crore (approx $645,000) very soon," he said.

Whether this payment would be used to pay the players was left unsaid, but it is one of two major problems in the BPL. Even now, several players have remained unpaid. The last reported claim was on February 28 when Netherlands' Ryan ten Doeschate, West Indies' Kevon Cooper, Zimbabwe's Brendan Taylor and England players Ravi Bopara and Jason Roy said that they were still to get money from the Chittagong Kings.

The other major problem is the BPL corruption investigation and while the tribunal has given its short verdict, the BCB is planning to appeal against their judgment after only one individual among nine accused was found guilty of "being party to an effort to fix" a match in the 2013 BPL. The long verdict is still due, although it was to be announced shortly after the World T20 held in Bangladesh.

Last year, BCB president Nazmul Hassan had said that it would be difficult to hold the BPL without clearing it of the controversies.