Mohammad Naim was sold for an impressive Tk one crore 10 lakh, while Towhid Hridoy fetched Tk 92 lakh during the players’ auction ceremony of the 12th edition of the Bangladesh Premier League, which took place at a city hotel in Dhaka on Sunday.
Naim, whose base price was Tk 50 lakh in category A, was roped in by the Chattogram Royals after toppling the bid from the Sylhet Titans. After Sylhet opened the bid, there was a three-sided battle among Rangpur Riders, Chattogram, and Sylhet.
Naim was among the two players in category A, along with national team captain Litton Das, to go under the hammer. Litton, however, couldn’t draw as much attention as Naim. Sylhet bid for him also, but Rangpur had the last laugh.
However, Hridoy, who was in category B with a base price of Tk 35 lakh, reached Tk 92 lakh as he was bought by Rangpur.
In the same category, two experienced campaigners, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah, remained unsold until the end of the auction for the local players.
Mushfiq, who retired from international T20s, even expressed his reaction on his Facebook page after he went unsold. ‘Alhamdulillah for everything,’ wrote the batter with three clapping emojis.
Rajshahi then bought him at the base price of Tk 35 lakh, while Mahmudullah went to Rangpur at the same price.
There was controversy as well in that category when Noakhali Express bagged Jaker Ali and Mahidul Islam at their base price of Tk 35 lakh. However, no bidding was needed for a misinterpretation of a clause.
The BPL governing council mentioned that a minimum of two players should be bought by each franchise through the auction from categories A and B, while they must have six cricketers from C and D and three cricketers from E and F.
However, the governing council also stated that a maximum of 14 players can be registered through the auction.
But confusion started when Rajshahi head coach Hannan Sarkar claimed that Chattogram could not bid again after they bought two players on the trot.
As only Jaker and Mahidul remained from categories A and B, Noakhali got the chance to pick up Mahidul and Jaker at their base, as no other team was allowed to bid for them.
While filing this report, the governing council didn’t clarify why they nodded with Hannan’s claim and followed that.
Mohammad Saifuddin (68), Tanzim Hasan (66), Shamim Hossain and Nahid Rana (56), Mohammad Mithun (52), and Habibur Rahman (50) got more than Tk 50 lakh at the auction.
Abdul Gaffar Saqlain, who shone in the recently concluded Rising Stars Asia Cup, bagged Tk 44 lakh after being at a base price of Tk 18 lakh.
Former Test captain Mominul Haque and pacer Ebadot Hossain were sold at their base price of Tk 22 lakh after being unsold at first.
Among the overseas cricketers, Dasun Shanaka was sold for USD 55,000—the highest—to Dhaka.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.newagebd.net ’
