Barishal request for change in schedule of BPL as the tournament is held on the backdrop of a very short notice.
Fortune Barishal, the reigning winners of the Bangladesh Premier League, has asked the BPL governing body to postpone the competition since they are finding it difficult to get ready for it at such short notice.
The league’s governing committee recently declared that there will only be five clubs in the next BPL, and that play will start in the middle of December. The organisation also requested Expressions of Interest for franchise ownership rights for BPLT20 after the announcement.
“The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has officially opened the process for Expressions of Interest (EOI) from reputed business houses, companies, and entities for the acquisition of Franchise Ownership Rights in the Bangladesh Premier League T20 (BPLT20),” BCB said in a statement on Sunday (October12).
“The rights will be granted for five consecutive editions, [from the] 12th-16th seasons of the tournament,” it added.
“The BCB has outlined ten (10) potential franchise regions as follows: Barishal, Chattogram, Cumilla, Dhaka, Khulna, Mymensingh, Noakhali, Rajshahi, Rangpur, and Sylhet.
“As part of a transparent and merit-based process, the BPL Governing Council will consider a minimum of five (5) eligible EOI submissions for the 12th edition of the BPL T20 (2026),” it added.
“Even if we have players, we have to organize the funds and the instruments that we need to buy [players], we have to bring them and in this one or one-and-a-half months even if we work for 24 hours we cannot do that. I have requested for a different slot and now let’s see what they say.
“I haven’t said that we won’t play but if the slot is changed in that case we would…because we have always been with the game and we are not out of the game,” he said.
“I don’t think any good team will be willing to play in this short time and you can even ask Rangpur (Riders), and what I feel is that team that doesn’t have the experience will be willing to play.
“I just wanted to buy some time…We can do it in April and May, and what is the problem?! You can give the team (for the next cycle) and give us some time so that we can organize it well. I don’t think there is any point in doing it just for the sake of it and I don’t think it would be right to do BPL without us,” he said.