Eighty-five players picked in BPL 2016-17 draft

Eighty-five players, including 23 overseas players, were allocated through a lottery during the BPL 2016-17draft in Dhaka on Friday.

The number was slightly higher than the 82 players allocated during the 2015 draft. This season’s BPL starts from November 4 in Dhaka, reports ESPNcricinfo.

At the start of the draft, the two new franchises, Khulna Titans and Rajshahi Kings, were given a chance to pick two local players to match the other five franchises, who had the option of retaining two local players from the previous season’s squad.

Khulna went for left-arm spinner Mosharraf Hossain and pacer Shafiul Islam while Rajshahi took wicketkeeper Nurul Hasan and allrounder Mehedi Hasan Miraz. Khalid Latif who was picked by Comilla Victorians. The next five selections were Grant Elliott (Chittagong Vikings), Lendl Simmons (Khulna), Milinda Siriwardana (Rajshahi), Mohammad Nawaz (Barisal Bulls) and Seekugge Prasanna (Dhaka Dynamites).

In the same round, Dhaka picked Wayne Parnell, while Barisal went for Carlos Brathwaite, who will be unavailable between November 10 and 28. Upul Tharanga (Rajshahi), Ben Laughlin (Khulna), Imran Khan jnr (Chittagong), Shahzaib Hasan (Comilla) and Sachithra Senanayake (Rangpur) were the other drafted players in the first round.

There was only one other round for the foreign players as franchises chose not to pick any more for the remainder of the draft. Samit Patel (Rajshahi), Jeevan Mendis and Tymal Mills (Chittagong), Pakistani legspinner Usama Mir (Dhaka), Josh Cobb (Barisal), Gihan Rupasinghe (Rangpur), Andre Fletcher and Junaid Khan (Khulna), and Jason Holder (Comilla) were also selected.

Earlier this week, franchises had released a list of foreign players they had picked before the official draft. The list includes Chris Gayle, Mahela Jayawardene, Shahid Afridi and Mohammad Nabi.

Among the local players, Sanjamul Islam was the first choice, picked up by Dhaka. The other local first-round picks were Shuvagata Hom (Khulna), Mominul Haque (Rajshahi), Abdur Razzak (Chittagong), Shamsur Rahman (Barisal), Rubel Hossain (Rangpur) and Al-Amin (Comilla).

A few Bangladesh Under-19 cricketers, who were part of the squad that made it to the World Cup semi-final earlier this year, were among the picks. Apart from Miraz, who was picked by Rajshahi, Mohammad Saifuddin was selected by Comilla and Pinak Ghosh went to Rangpur.

Franchises also opted for players belonging to their region. Barisal, for instance, took Shahriar Nafees, Kamrul Islam Rabbi and Monir Hossain Khan. Chittagong added young batsman Yasir Ali Chowdhury from the port city.

Comilla took Rasel Al Mamun, while Mohammad Shahid, who was born and raised in Narayanganj, was the closest Dhaka came to picking a player from their region. Rangpur took Naeem Islam, who plays first-class cricket for their division but is from nearby Gaibandha, while Rajshahi also picked local players Sabbir Rahman and Farhad Reza.

The event began at 6:30pm local time and Bangladesh players Mushfiqur Rahim, Mashrafe Mortaza, Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal and Mahmudullah, who are in the A category, joined their respective franchises for certain parts of the draft. The Bangladesh team, in Dhaka for the ODI series against Afghanistan, were staying at the hotel that was the venue for the draft.

Shakib, representing Dhaka, will be the highest-paid local player in this season`s BPL and is set to receive Tk 55 lakh (approx. $68,750), the cap set for his payment. Mushfiqur, Tamim, Mashrafe and Mahmudullah will get at least Tk 50 lakh each from Barisal, Chittagong, Comilla and Khulna respectively. Sabbir and Sarkar, also in the A-category players, will get Tk 40 lakh each from Rajshahi.

A few BCB directors were also present at the franchise tables, including Khaled Mahmud (Dhaka Dynamites), Kazi Inam Ahmed (Khulna Titans) and Abdul Awal Chowdhury (Barisal Bulls). The country`s planning minister, and former BCB and ICC president, AHM Mustafa Kamal sat at the Comilla Victorians table while Shahriar Alam, state minister for foreign affairs was at Rajshahi Kings` table.

Squads
Dhaka Dynamites: Evin Lewis, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Shakib Al Hasan, Ravi Bopara, Nasir Hossain, Mosaddek Hossain, Andre Russell, Dwayne Bravo, Seekugge Prasanna, Wayne Parnell, Sanjamul Islam, Alauddin Babu, Suhrawadi Shuvo, Mehedi Maruf, Usama Mir, Mohammad Shahid, Irfan Shukkur, Tanveer Haider.

Khulna Titans: Mahmudullah, Nicholas Pooran, Riki Wessels, Kevon Cooper, Mohammad Asghar, Benny Howell, Mosharraf Hossain, Lendl Simmons, Ben Laughlin, Shuvagata Hom, Ariful Haque, Abdul Majid, Alok Kapali, Andre Fletcher, Junaid Khan, Hasanuzzaman, Naeem Islam jnr, Noor Hossain Saddam, Taibur Rahman, Abdul Halim, Shafiul Islam.

Barisal Bulls: Rumman Raees, Dilshan Munaweera, Mushfiqur Rahim, Al-Amin Hossain, Taijul Islam, Mohammad Nawaz, Carlos Brathwaite, Shamsur Rahman, Abu Hider, Kamrul Islam Rabbi, Nadif Chowdhury, Josh Cobb, Mahedi Hasan, Monir Hossain Khan, Shahriar Nafees.

Chittagong Vikings: Tamim Iqbal, Anamul Haque, Chris Gayle, Dwayne Smith, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Nabi, Taskin Ahmed, Chaturanga de Silva, Grant Elliott, Imran Khan jnr, Abdur Razzak, Subashis Roy, Jahurul Islam, Nazmul Hossain Milon, Jeevan Mendis, Tymal Mills, Zakir Hasan, Saqlain Sajib, Shahidul Islam, Yasir Ali Chowdhury, Jubair Hossain.

Comilla Victorians: Imrul Kayes, Liton Das, Ashar Zaidi, Imad Wasim, Thisara Perera, Mashrafe Mortaza, Sohail Tanvir, Nuwan Kulasekera, Rashid Khan, Rovman Powell, Khalid Latif, Shahzaib Hasan, Al-Amin, Nazmul Hossain Shanto, Nahidul Islam, Mohammad Saifuddin, Jason Holder, Mohammad Sharif, Nabil Samad, Jasimuddin, Saikat Ali, Rasel Al Mamun.

Rangpur Riders: Soumya Sarkar, Sharjeel Khan, Mohammad Shahzad, Gidron Pope, Mohammad Mithun, Babar Azam, Shahid Afridi, Dasun Shanaka, Arafat Sunny, Richard Gleeson, Nasir Jamshed, Sachithra Senanayake, Rubel Hossain, Sohag Gazi, Ziaur Rahman, Naeem Islam, Gihan Rupasinghe, Elias Sunny, Pinak Ghosh, Muktar Ali, Mehrab Hossain, Shahbaz Chouhan.

Rajshahi Kings: Sabbir Rahman, Darren Sammy, Mohammad Sami, Nurul Hasan, Milinda Siriwardana, Upul Tharanga, Mominul Haque, Farhad Reza, Nazmul Islam, Raqibul Hasan, Samit Patel, Abul Hasan, Rony Talukdar, Salman Hossain, Ebadot Hossain, Mehedi Hasan Miraz.