BPL Auction: Mohammad Naim becomes most expensive player

BPL Auction: Mohammad Naim becomes most expensive player

Mohammad Naim was the most expensive player at the auction.

The Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) player auction finally returned after nine editions at a city hotel on Sunday. This was the BPL's first auction since the inaugural edition in 2012 as a players draft was in place since then. Mohammad Naim was the only player to get more than BDT 1 crore (USD 88,000 approx) as he was bought by Chittagong Royals.

Naim was the first player to come up in the auction when the process opened an hour later as the board was waiting to get clearance from the High Court as nine cricketers filed writ petition against them after being excluded from the auction in relation to fixing related charges.

Rangpur Riders took the second and third most expensive players in the auction, when they bought Towhid Hridoy and Litton Das for USD 73,600 and USD 56,000 respectively. There were however no initial bids for veterans Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah, who were both in category B.

Later however, the auctioneer brought up Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur after a request from BCB director and Rangpur Riders chief executive Ishtiaque Sadeque and his team Riders picked up Mahmudullah while Rajshahi Warriors took Mushfiqur, for their base prices BDT 35 lakh (USD 28,000 approx).

Among the uncapped players, Habibur Rahman Sohan, was taken by Noakhali Express for USD 40,000 on the back of his recent performances as he did well for Bangladesh A in the Asia Cup Rising Stars tournament. Mohammad Mithun triggered a paddle-raising duel that took him from Tk22 lakh to Tk52 lakh. Newcomer Abdul Gaffar Saqlain shot from 18 lakh to 44 lakh whereas SM Meherob Hasan joined the party with 39 lakh.

While hundreds of foreign cricketers remained unsold, Dasun Shanaka was the most expensive among the overseas players, when Dhaka Capitals took him for USD 55,000. Noakhali Express can claim themselves to be lucky as they picked Mahidul Islam and Jaker Ali for their base price. Had the auction guidelines been taken into account, all the teams could have bid for them. According to auction bylaws a team has to pick minimum two cricketers from Grade A and B (combined) while they can have six cricketers from C and D ( combined) and three cricketers from E and F (combined).

After picking these 11 cricketers they have to pick one more cricketer from any grade to fill the the minimum criteria of 12 players at the auction. However, they had the option to pick a maximum of 14 local players in the auction. So every franchise had the option to pick more than two cricketers from grade A and B (combined).

However, confusion began when Chattogram Royals picked two cricketers on the trot. Rajshahi Warriors head coach Hannan Sarkar claimed that Chattogram cannot bid for any more players from A and B categories and everyone obliged. As a result after 10 out of the 12 cricketers from A and B categories (combined) were picked by five franchises, Noakhali got the chance to pick up Mahidul and Jaker at their base price as no other team were allowed to bid for them.

Noakhali head coach Khaled Mahmud was happy to be a beneficiary. "I am happy to get those two cricketers at their base price because I didn't expect it," Mahmud said.

Meanwhile, Rangpur Riders team director Shanian Taneem claimed that Mahmudullah was always in their team's plans even though they didn't bid for him initially. "If anyone thinks Mahmudullah Riyad went unsold, that's not entirely correct. Every team had limitations. With 14 players each in A and B categories and restrictions that we couldn't pick more than two, we had to choose based on strategy. But Mahmudullah was always in our plans. A player of his calibre should be in any team's plans," said Shanian.

The BPL, scheduled from December 26 to January 23, will be played by six teams - Dhaka Capitals, Rangpur Riders, Rajshahi Warriors, Noakhali Express, Sylhet Titans and Chittagong Royals.