BPL CONTROVERSY DRAGS ON

The fifth edition of Bangladesh Premier League might have ended on Tuesday but the controversy regarding the tournament was yet to end.

Two days after the final, the BPL governing body had to call a press conference to on Thursday to explain its position regarding controversial second qualifier which ended in two days.

Rangpur Riders beat Comilla Victorians by 36 runs on the extended day of the match to qualify for the final and eventually win the tournament for the first time in their history.

Only seven overs were possible on the scheduled day due to rain, creating a lot of drama before Comilla agreed to play the game on the extended day.

If the game, which had no scheduled reserve day, was washed out, Comilla would join Dhaka in the final due to their better standing in the league phase.

But BPL authorities insisted to find a result under any circumstances, leading to chaos and controversy.

Rain halted the game at 6:35pm and continued its impact for nearly three hours but when the cover of the ground was removed at 9:35pm the play could not be resumed at 9:50pm at cut-off period.

The BPL governing council then offered to extend the cut-off time by two hours before asking Comilla to play Super Over.

‘There were various reports published in the media by referring to some captains that a Super Over can only take place while the match was tie, which was not true, BCB director Mahbubul Anam told reporters on Thursday.

Mahabub, who played a proactive role in the entire saga despite not being a member of BPL governing council, argued that both teams agreed to play the game for the sake public interest.

‘The BPL governing council did not impose anything at any point. We think that we had to clarify our position in this regard so I told you about it now,’ he said.

The BCB official claimed that on-field umpires and match officials asked the teams to take preparation for the Super Over as they wanted to hold it at 10pm as the ground was ready for it.

‘One team [Comilla] disagreed to play the Super Over, which wasted sometime in the field but after both the teams decided to play in the next day, the match resumed on the next day,’ he said.

‘We offered them to extend the cut-off time two hours but they didn’t agree. So we have to go through this process,’ he said.

Mahbub argued that their proposal for two-hour extension was in accordance with by-laws commensurate with the Indian Premier League and International Cricket Council events.

‘Governing council has exclusive rights to change any playing condition,’ he said.