Legends of Sports

The scenery of cricket in Bangladesh is set to be altered on January 19, when 180-odd cricketers go under the hammer during the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) player auction in Dhaka. The prospect of Chris Gayle, Shahid Afridi and Kieron Pollard being fought for by the six BPL franchises, who can spend up to $2 million each, is thrilling, but it is the potential for a few Bangladesh cricketers to change their fortune through extraordinary riches that will bring fervor to the event.

On Thursday morning, the Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel, the venue for the auction, will be buzzing with organisers, team owners and the media. The "open bidding" conducted by Cyrus Madan - better known in India as a horseracing expert and commentator will take place behind closed doors. Each franchise will have six representatives seated at different tables, as it is for the IPL. It begins at 10.30 am and will be telecast live on Channel 9, a Bangladesh television channel.

The six franchises were bought for prices vary between $1.01 million and $1.2 million, with SQ Sports picking up Chittagong for the highest value during the auction on January 10. SQ Sports had before run the Chittagong Tigers side in the Port City Cricket League. Orion Group bought the Khulna franchise for $1.10 million, Shakib Al Hasan's presence as the icon player being the drawing card for a leading industrial corporation.

The BPL governing council released a list of 176 players, both international and local, a week ahead of the auction but are likely to update both sets before the hammer falls. Afridi, Pollard, Dwayne Bravo and Abdul Razzaq are the marquee names up for auction at a base price of $100,000. Some of the other players in the auction are Scott Styris, Shoaib Malik, Chaminda Vaas, Muttiah Muralitharan, Ajantha Mendis and Azhar Mahmood. Gayle, Dirk Nannes and Herschelle Gibbs will be available for a few matches.

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The first edition of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) will kick off on February 9, 2012 with the final to be played on February 29. The 20-day tournament will feature six teams that will play each other twice each in a round-robin format over 33 matches to be held in Chittagong and Dhaka. Teams will be allowable to field five foreign players in their XIs, as opposed to four in the IPL. Adam Gilchrist, Mathew Hayden, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, Kamran Akmal and James Anderson are among at least 25 foreign players who have made them offered for the competition.

"The main thing is the Bangladesh players have to be available," Arun Lal, a consultant to Game on Sports. As in the first season of the IPL, each team will have an icon player. The Bangladesh Cricket Board announced that Tamim Iqbal will be the icon player for Chittagong, Mohammad Ashraful for Dhaka, Alok Kapali for Sylhet, Shahriar Nafees for Barisal, Mushfiqur Rahim for Rajshahi and Shakib Al Hasan for Khulna. The players will be paid 5% more than the amount received by the highest paid player of each franchise.

The franchise auction will take place on January 5, either in Dhaka or the sea-side town of Cox's Bazar. Companies wishing to bid for a franchise will submit their offers on the same day, and bids will be opened in front of all those present, with the franchises going to the highest bidder. The player auction is planned to take place 10 days later. Each team will have to spend a minimum of US $2 million and can spend up to an utmost of $5 million. However, India's domestic 50-over competition begins on February 20 and therefore could restrict Indian participation.

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