Sabbir Ahamed Sarker, ID-1025043 Individual Analysis

Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) is a professional Twenty20 cricket league in Bangladesh, based on the format of the other international Premier League such as EPL, Pro20, Big Bash & IPL. The first edition of the tournament started on 10 February 2012 with six franchises consisting of players from around the world. Like other successful premier leagues Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) decided to organize its own professional T20 league with a similar concept. The auction for BPL T20 held in Dhaka, was a low-key event after the sudden demise of the Bangladesh Cricket Board's chief Manzur Ahmed in the morning. The franchises have been bought for a six-year period. The Chittagong franchise was bought by SQ Sports, a group of businessmen led by Dhaka Dyeing, who outbid Pearl Trading ($1.05 million) and Digital Auto Care ($1 million). The fact that a $200,000 bump from the base price was the highest for any team says a lot about the bidding war - or lack of it. The second-highest price offered was for Khulna, which was bought by Orion Group for $1.1 million. Digital Auto Care paid just $1.07 million for Rajshahi; a group of business houses led by Walton, a local electronic goods manufacturing giant, bought Sylhet for $1.06 million; and the Dhaka franchise was picked up by Europa Group for $1.05 million with the other bidders Digital Auto Care and Euro Impex - offering the base price. This was a bit of a surprise given the prestige attached to the country's biggest division. When the teams were sold for the National Cricket League T20s two years ago there had been fierce competition between bidders for the Dhaka team. The Alif Group acquired the Barisal franchise for the lowest price of all the teams: $1.01 million. The bidding for the Barisal team turned into a bit of a farce when Southern International quoted $900,000, which was less than the base price for a franchise. That bid indicated the lack of confidence investors seemed to have in the benefits of buying a franchise. The money paid to acquire the franchises will go to Game On Sports, who signed a six-year deal worth $44.3 million with the BCB, acquiring the rights to manage the BPL. The absence of bids from big corporate houses was something even the eventual franchise owners expressed concern about, but they expect the profile of the tournament to grow once it starts. Notably, the companies that bought National Cricket League T20 franchises two years ago did not bid for teams this time. That tournament only lasted one season, and that experience, coupled with the fragility of the Bangladesh market, kept them away from the auction

Suspense, action, drama - Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) 2012 had everything we will find in a typical commercial Hollywood/Bollywood movie. Criticism and BPL were intertwined from the start to the end. First of all due to a low key profile in the days leading up to the launching of the event there was not much excitement about BPL amongst people. Then the inaugural ceremony on February 9, 2012, which was dominated by the performances of Indian celebrities, was criticized for having an awful theme song composed by the Indian music director Bappi Lahiri and sung by him as well as another Indian singer Shaan along with our country's Kumar Bishwajit. The former Miss Kolkata, Sheena Chohan, was awarded the main presenter's seat in preference to pretty and smart Bangladeshi girls. Also, the revelation that gamblers had approached Mashrafee Mortaza was another shock. Some players like Mushfiqur Rahim complained about the inefficiency of the team managers in dealing with payment issues. And the tournament ended with the nasty controversy over who would be in the Knockout round. While immediately after Barishal Burners had won their last match before the Knockout round it was confirmed they were a semi-finalist on the basis of the run rates, they did not have their name, to their utter dismay and anger, in the list on the evening before the day the Knockout matches were to begin and it was the Chittagong Kings that were evidently going to the next round on the "head to head" basis. However, in a classic melodramatic twist, in the morning it was announced that Barishal Burners were taken to the Knockout round instead of the most expensive franchise, Chittagong Kings. This annoyed the owners of Chittagong Kings so much that they filed a case against the organizers.

Nevertheless, not all was bad about the Bangladesh Premier League 2012. Bangladeshis are very passionate about cricket so it is hard to keep them away from this sport. Except for a few matches where the crowd was disappointingly thin, the stadium mostly remained filled to capacity with supporters in colorful team jerseys and interesting banners in hand bursting into cheers intermittently. Those who could not make it to the stadium always had Channel 9 for watching the game live. Before, while watching IPL, people here had had to make a random choice of the Indian regional teams they would be supporting; now they had their own regional teams to cheer up for. The country was segmented into six divisions -- Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet, Rajshahi, Khulna and Barishal. Indian cricket players and celebrity cricketers of Australia and New Zealand were conspicuous by their absence from the first BPL, something most cricket lovers here had hoped had not happened. However, the tournament showcased some great foreign players, mostly West Indian and Pakistani, and their spirit and dedications were worth emulating. Especially, Imran Nazir and Azhar Mahmood of Dhaka Gladiators, Ahmed Shezad of Barishal Burners, and Mohammad Sami of Duronto Rajshahi showed their amazing enthusiasm for winning each and every game for their respective teams. But the most electrifying performances were those of Chris Gayle of Barishal Burners, who made 288 runs with 26 sixes in just 5 matches. Fans of Dhaka Gladiators had been waiting eagerly for Shahid Afridi and Saeed Ajmal to join their team; finally these

cricket maestros started playing in BPL from the semi-finals and after that Dhaka Gladiators did not have to look back. Deservingly, the first ever Bangladesh Premier League cup was won by Dhaka Gladiators, who bagged the prize money of 5 crore taka in the bargain. However, we must not forget that the winning team got huge support from their foreign players like Mahmood, Nazir, Pollard and Rana Naved, all of whom performed brilliantly throughout the tournament. What the Bangladeshi cricket team needs to learn from the tournament is that you cannot win a tournament with spinners and middle order batsmen only; you need good quality pacers and opening batsmen. BPL has brought out some great new talents that had hitherto been hidden in different parts of the country. Elias Sunny, Anamul Haque Bijoy, Jahurul Islam and Mominul Haque were simply brilliant. As regards the seniors, the BPL was a rejuvenating experience for Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mashrafe Mortaza and Junaid Siddiqui. In all, the tournament provided a unique opportunity for the Tigers to learn from world class cricketers like Muttiah Muralitharan, Sanath Jayasuriya and Herschelle Gibbs. What however was lost as the missed opportunity was sharing the same dressing room with the icon players and hugging them in euphoric moments. On February 29, 2012, when BPL ended many people commented that it was an absolute entertainment, its blemishes notwithstanding, and that they would miss it badly. What is now expected of the organizers is that they will learn from their mistakes in the first season and come back next year with much better arrangements and even a more entertaining tournament. My recommendation for BPL (to BCB) would be: 1. Keep cricket out of Match Fixing Controversy. 2. In order to make a high profile tournament, you need high profile players. Otherwise there wont be much money coming in from the sponsors and TV rights. BPL must learn from IPL, and secure Superstars like Gayle, Warne, Tait, Vettori, McCullum, Pathan's, Dravid, Dilshan, Ganguly, Steyn or any superstar on the sideline. Without superstars, sponsorship will be low and it will turn into a low profile tournament. 3. Franchises should focus on team merchandise sales locally and globally. 4. Showcase the new teams or the existing teams over the internet to attract bigger amount from the big corporate houses locally and internationally. 5. Keep controversial sponsors (e.g.-Destiny 2000) out of BPL, it might hamper the brand image of BPL.