Local players domination makes BPL a success story: Fahim

Dhaka, 9 Feb  - Nazmul Abedin Fahim, the member secretary of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) governing council, believes that the just concluded edition of the country’s premier T20 tournament lived up to the expectations fully to make it different than the past editions.

He cited ticketing system and pitch of the BPL as the revolutionary factors behind making it a success story.

“The ticketing system this time was disciplined. The mass people responded well to the online ticketing system. The online ticketing system ensured that most of the ticket would go to the mass people, unlike the previous time,” Fahim told the BSS.
  
“BPL usually always attracts the mass people but this time, the response was overwhelming that was really satisfying for us. In every game, the stadium was jam-packed,” he added. 

The mass people came in abundance and cheered for their teams, Fahim said adding, “If you look at final game, there was huge demand for tickets but unfortunately we couldn’t provide because all tickets were sold as soon as it goes on sale.”

While the ticketing system made a revolution, giving the spectators to buy tickets without any hassle unlike the previous time, the pitch was another success story.

 The BPL governing council this time strictly told the curators to prepare sporting pitch, which they did that resulted in providing high scoring game in every match.

Bangladesh players often blamed the pitch as the chief reason behind not enhancing their power-hitting skill, said Fahim.

“There was advice that the pitch should be good for batters and bowlers as well. We saw the batters enjoyed a good run while the bowlers, who have the skill, also showcased their mettle even amid the run-fest,” Fahim remarked.

“I am particularly pleased with our local players’ performance. They lived up to the expectation fully.

 I can’t name all the players at this moment but the likes of Naim Sheikh, Parvez Hossain Emon, Tanzid Hasan Tamim, Yasir Ali Chowdhury, Nurul Hasan Sohan were really good in showcasing their talent and power-hitting skill,” he added.

Fahim particularly was pleased with the players’ attitude toward the game, saying that they didn’t give up even if they need 15 or 20 runs in the last over.

He said Bangladeshi players played a vital role in sealing the game even when their teams need 15 or 20 runs in the last over. 

“In the past BPLs, we used to see this role was being played by the overseas players,” Fahim added. 

 Every team has designated foreign death over power hitters but in this season, we saw the local players were the designated power hitters for their side,  he said adding that this skill will help Bangladesh in the International T20 tournaments.

“One of the main reasons of holding BPL is to make players used to learn the T20 cricket’s dynamics.

 Since it’s a shortest format of cricket, the players didn’t get enough time to understand the game because there is so much ebb and flow in the game.”
 
Fahim said “In this BPL, we saw our local players judged the game very well. They had the knack to finish the game by their own. It’s a positive outcome of our BPL.”

Local players, however, dominated in this BPL, grabbing the top spot in both bowling and batting chart.  Naim Shiekh is the top run-getter in this BPL with 511 runs.

Including him, nine of the local batters were in the top 10, which is first instance in BPL history.

Taskin Ahmed led the bowling chart with 25 wickets, highest by any player in BPL history. In the top 10 bowlers, only three were overseas players.

In six-hitting parameter, Tanzid Hasan Tamim is in the top spot with 36 sixes.

 He is the second best in BPL history, only behind Chris Gayle’s 47 sixes. Naim Sheikh also struck 30 sixes in this season.

In total, this BPL saw 715 sixes, which is the highest number of maximums in its history.

Despite the run-fest, Taskin and Aliss Al Islam maintained economy rate just under seven while Hasan Mahmud, Mustfizur Rahman, Nasum Ahmed, Mehidy Hasan Miraz leaked runs just shed over seven.

“This is the testament of bowlers’ skill. Whatever the pitch is, a good bowler can take it out of the equation. And sporting pitch can give you that opportunity,” Fahim said.

“Overall the BPL is good and exactly delivered what we wanted. We hope we can fix the irregularities whatever there are and keep maintaining the standard in future,” he concluded.BSS