Shawdesh Desk:

Three franchises confirmed their participation in the forthcoming Bangladesh Premier League after they held meeting with the governing council of the cash-rich Twenty20 tournament on Monday, said the officials.

The BPL governing council met Dhaka Dynamites, Khulna Titans and Rajshahi Kings representatives as part of their discussion with all seven franchises of the tournament, scheduled to start on December 6.

They will sit with other franchises on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively, said the officials.

The governing council officials said they had listened to the opinions of the franchise representatives for their second cycle of the tournament, which will last for next four seasons and informed them the new rules and regulations. .

‘The discussion was a fruitful one. They agreed to involve with us in next cycle,’ the Bangladesh Cricket Board director Mahbub Anam told reporters in Mirpur after holding all three meetings.

‘Around mid-October there will be an auction or players draft. Every team will get around one-and-a-half month to make their teams. Today three teams came. They were confident of organising their teams in the period. Soon we will complete the signing process with them,’ he added.

Khulna Titans managing director Kazi Inam Ahmed said that they pointed out two issues to make the tournament a sustainable one during their meeting with BPL governing body.

‘We have discussed how to make the tournament attractive for next four years. We have two points. We want to see the tournament a sustainable one,’ Inam said.

‘We see the change in the ownership in every year. We don’t want it in next cycle. To make the tournament a commercially successful one we suggested to give the franchises grounds rights or ticketing right so that their property value increased,’ he added.

Inam also seek one local marquee player and two foreign direct signings before the draft or auction event.

‘If there is two or three foreign signings, there should be a local player for us…If there is a local player whether he is skipper or marquee, it makes the system beautiful,’ he said, adding that he also requested to hold some matches in Khulna.

Rajshahi Kings proposed a revenue-sharing model and a consistency in the BPL rules during their meeting.

‘A revenue share model earned from various streams such as the broadcast rights, sponsorship rights, ticket procedure and all other revenue streams that the board is exposed to can be implied. We propose sharing a percentage of the revenue equally among the franchises,’ said Rajshahi Kings in a media release.

‘We would like to propose that a set of rules to be fixed from the first year starting from the seventh edition,’ it added.

Dhaka Dynamites chief executive officer Obeid Nizam confirmed there was no discussion about recent controversial transfer of national all-rounder Sakib al Hasan to Rangpur Riders.