Sylhet Bang!

What Hampshire all-rounder Sean Ervine can expect from the Bangladesh Premier League

Today sees the inaugural Bangladesh Premier League kick off when Barisal meet Sylhet in the competition’s first ever game. But, for Hampshire fans, attention will be focussed on tomorrow’s match, Chittagong Kings v Duronto Rajshahi at Mirpur – a match that will feature Royals all-rounder, Sean Ervine.

So just what can the Zimbabwean expect from the three-week long tournament? Rosebowlplc.com’s Ryan Day explores the newest challenger to the IPL’s crown...

The Bangladesh Premier League, or BPL, follows a similar pattern to that of the Indian Premier League where franchises pay large amounts of money for players to entertain (what they are hoping will be) large crowds across the country over a concentrated 20 day-period.

The competition sees just six franchises taking part; each playing everyone else twice before the semi-finals and final on the 29th February meaning 33 matches will be played in total with all games taking part in either Dhaka or Chittagong.

The six franchises that will take part are Chittagong, Dhaka, Sylhet, Barisal, Rajshani and Khulna. All of the six sides must have an icon player on their books from the Bangladesh cricket board and, at the end of January, it was announced that Tamim Iqbal would lead Chittagong, Mohammad Ashraful would lead Dhaka, Alok Kapali for Sylhet, Shahriar Nafees for Barisal, Mushfiqur Rahim for Rajshahi  and Shakib Al Hasan for Khulna.

The BPL does differ slightly from the IPL as each franchise is allowed to field five foreign players compared to just four in the Indian version of the tournament. The BPL has some high profile players, too, including Chris Gayle, Muttiah Muralitharan and Sanath Jayasuriya.

However, there remains doubt over Hampshire star Shahid Afridi’s level of involvement after he was signed up by Dhaka for an astonishing $700,000. With the BPL clashing with Pakistan’s One Day Series against England, the all-rounder may not feature at all or may simply put in a semi-final appearance should Dhaka get that far.

Surprisingly, some high class players were left on the shelf during the bidding process as the likes of Scott Styris, Chaminda Vaas, Ramneresh Sarwan and Dirk Nannes all missed out.

Ervine will feature for Rajshahi, a city in north-western Bangladesh also known as the ‘Education City’ after its university. Home to around 475,000, Rajshahi could surprise a few in this year’s tournament although Dhaka and Chittagong do remain the joint favourites.

Alongside Ervine will be former Hampshire players, Imran Tahir and Adbul Razzaq (pending international commitments), West Indian Marlon Samuels and, interestingly, Pakistan-born Canadian national, Rizwan Cheema who took two wickets and top scored (with 31) when his national side beat Hampshire in the Caribbean T20 last winter.

So what can the players expect from their sub-continental adventure? Obviously the money on show is a huge incentive for the players - Ervine was paid $25,000, Tahir $50,000 and Razzaq $100,000; not bad for less than a month’s work!

However, the opportunity to be involved in the inaugural BPL and the opportunity to test their skills on new territory will be the biggest test for most of the players. Spin should play a huge part of this competition with most wickets likely to be slower and lower.

And, if you follow Ervine’s Twitter feed (@Slug_7), some pretty great views are also on offer (see image above left). We’re sure he’ll show the Bangladeshi public something special, too!

Words: Ryan Day
Images: LMI Photography /
Sean Ervine

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