BPL players’ draft on September 30

The players’ draft for this year’s Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) will be held on September 30, according to the league’s governing council. The tournament will begin on November 4, brought forward by two days as earlier announced.

The BCB did not confirm whether the draft this year would follow last year’s format, when franchises called out their choice of local and overseas players after going through multiple rounds of lotteries to choose who called first. In the end, the icon players (the top Bangladeshi cricketers) were distributed equally among the franchises through a separate lottery.

There will be seven franchises this year, one more than the six that played in 2012, 2013 and 2015. Khulna and Rajshahi have returned after missing out in 2015.

They will join defending champions Comilla Victorians, Barisal Bulls, Rangpur Riders, Dhaka Dynamites and Chittagong Vikings. The Sylhet franchise, which according to the BCB had breached franchisee agreement terms, will miss out.

The identity of the Khulna and Rajshahi franchise owners is not known yet, though the BCB mentioned that Gemcon Group and Mango Entertainment Ltd had ‘specifically expressed interest in owning the Khulna and Rajshahi franchises respectively’.

The board will announce the names after the Eid break, reports ESPNcricinfo.