Shakib Al Hasan became the most expensive buy in the Bangladesh Premier
League when he was acquired by Dhaka for $365,000 in one of the many
tiebreakers in the day. Imran Nazir, the second most valuable player at
$280,000, was bought by Chittagong in another tight bidding battle. As a
result, the auction lasted nearly eight hours with its share of drama.
The start of the auction was also the business end of it, as the golden
category players - both local and foreign - were fought over. With small
pay brackets, the seven BPL franchises often locked up at the highest
price quickly, but then had to write up their price on a piece of paper,
which was then read out by the auction commissioner, the highest bidder
winning the player's services.
Half an hour into the auction, six franchises hit the $75,000 ceiling
for Shakib. But when the written-up amounts were revealed, Dhaka's bid
was $152,000 more than their nearest rival Rajshahi, who had quoted
$213,000 while newcomers Rangpur were third with a $160,000 bid.
Shakib, however, will only get $162,000 because according to the league
rules, anything above the ceiling (in this case $290,000 more than
$75,000) gets distributed between the Bangladesh Cricket Board (60%),
the player (30%) and Game On Sports (10%), tournament's event management
firm. Tamim Iqbal would have joined Shakib but Rajshahi won the coin
toss after the two franchises were tied on $165,000 even after the
tiebreaker.
There was more drama when Nasir Hossain's turn came. Sylhet had begun
their celebrations after they were announced winners, but the
commissioner belatedly realised that one last envelope had remained
unopened. As it turned out, the last bid was the highest one. Rangpur,
who had bid $208,137 against Sylhet's $151,000, got the services of
Nasir and left the Sylhet owners in a shock.
Rangpur threw more interesting numbers during the afternoon. They bought
left-handed batsman Junaid Siddique for $67,757 and left-arm spinner
Abdur Razzak for $92,777. They also bid $72,772 for Shahzaib Hassan and
$89,792 for Ahmed Shehzad unsuccessfully. The trend inspired Khulna too
as they made a successful bid of $51,105 for Farhad Reza.
The auction for the B category of foreign players went by quietly but
the interest picked up again for the local players in the same category.
There was a tiebreaker for almost every name; many going into the
six-figure mark much against their track records. Rookie seamer Abul
Hasan fetched $121,000 from Rajshahi while left-arm spinner Elias Sunny
went for $106,000 to Barisal after a six-way tie on $50,000. Sylhet got
young batsman Mominul Haque for $127,000 beating four other teams.
The nature of the bidding was such that teams had to make blind guesses,
making some bids lop-sided. For example in case of Abul, the next best
offer behind Dhaka's $121,000 was Khulna's $53,000.
After a frenetic auction day, the major challenge for the BPL will be to
ensure that the players are paid according to the agreed schedule. Each
player will receive 25% of his payments before the tournament starts on
January 18 and the next 25% by the end of the tournament in
mid-February. The other 50% will have to be paid within six months from
the end of BPL 2013. The specter of unpaid player wages in BPL's first
season would loom over the hype until these payments are finally made.
Squads
Barisal Burners: Alok Kapali, Shafiul Islam, Elias Sunny,
Shuvagata Hom, Shabbir Rahman, Ifthikar Ahmed, Jubair Ahmed, Alauddin
Babu, Al Amin, Nazmul Apu, Saeed Ajmal, Sunil Narine, Brad Hodge, Azhar
Mahmood, Umar Gul, Kamran Akmal, Phil Mustard, Kabir Ali, Hammad Azam
Sylhet Royals: Mushfiqur Rahim, Sohag Gazi, Mominul Haque, Nazmul
Hossain, Imtiaz Hossain, Nazmul Hossain Milon, Jupiter Ghosh, Suhrawadi
Shuvo, Tino Best, Andre Russell, Dwayne Smith, Azeem Ghumman, Zulfiqur
Babar, Hamilton Masakadza, Babar Azam, Sohel Ahmed, Paul Stirling
Duronto Rajshahi: Tamim Iqbal, Ziaur Rahman, Jahurul Islam, Abul
Hasan, Farhad Hossain, Moktar Ali, Taijul Islam, Shaker Ahmed, Monir
Hossain, Marlon Samuels, Abdul Razzaq, Mohammad Sami, Shahzaib Hasan,
Alex Hales, Khalid Latif, Sean Ervine
Rangpur Riders: Nasir Hossain, Abdur Razzak, Junaid Siddique,
Imrul Kayes, Mehedi Maruf, Shamshur Rahman, Taposh Ghosh, Dhiman Ghosh,
Mohammad Sharif, Fidel Edwards, Kevin O'Brien, Sharjil Khan, Anwar Ali,
Raja Ali Dar
Dhaka Gladiators: Shakib Al Hasan, Mohammad Ashraful, Anamul
Haque, Mashrafe Mortaza, Raqibul Hasan, Mosharraf Hossain, Soumya
Sarkar, Litton Das, Shahid Afridi, Luke Wright, Owais Shah, Tillakaratne
Dilshan, Lasith Malinga, Joshua Cobb, Chris Liddle, Darren Stevens,
Kaushal Lokuarachchi
Khulna Royal Bengal: Nazimuddin, Shahriar Nafees, Farhad Reza,
Shahadat Hossain, Mizanur Rahman, Mohammad Mithun, Dollar Mahmud,
Sanjamul Islam, Nabil Samad, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Awaiz Zia, Umar
Amin, Ahmed Shehzad, Riki Wessels, Haris Sohail, Bilawal Bhatti, Shane
Harwood
Chittagong Kings: Mahmudullah, Naeem Islam, Rubel Hossain, Arafat
Sunny, Enamul Haque jnr, Aftab Ahmed, Marshall Ayub, Nurul Hasan, Imran
Nazir, Dwayne Bravo, Wahab Riaz, Ravi Bopara, Ryan Ten Doeschate, Jacob
Oram, Jason Roy, Kevon Cooper, Brendon Taylor, Saeed Anwar jnr
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