The 10th edition of Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) players’ draft for the 2024 season took place in a capital’s hotel on last Sunday. Seven franchises took part in the draft. The draft consisted of a total of 646 cricketers, among them 443 foreigners and 203 local players.
The seven franchises had signed local cricketers and a good group of foreign cricketers under the direct local signing policy.
BPL 2024 is scheduled to begin in mid-January, once again clashing with the BBL, ILT20 and SA20 which will run around the same time. Here are the West indies Players draft picks, direct signings and retentions for each team.
Fortune Barishal moulded a formidable team with stalwart players from the national team. Bangladesh’s Mr. Dependable Mushfiqur Rahim has been picked by Fortune Barishal.
He will be playing alongside a host of national team stars in Tamim Iqbal, Mahmudullah Riyad, Mehedi Hasan Miraz and Khaled Ahmed. Mushfiqur Rahim was the only local player belonging to Category A of local players with a price cap of TK 80 lakh. The wicket-keeper batter had played for Sylhet Strikers in the previous edition.
Barishal also roped in Mohammad Saifuddin and Soumya Sarkar from the local players’ draft. Along with the local stars, Barishal have retained Ibrahim Zadran while they got Shoaib Malik, Paul Sterling, Fakhar Zaman, Dunith Wellalage and Mohammad Amir.
Also, the other top graded cricketers have already completed the direct signing where Shakib Al Hasan joined Rangpur Riders. Liton Das was picked up by the defending champion Comilla Victorians while Taskin Ahmed was directly signed by Duronto Dhaka.
Meanwhile, Comilla Victorians bought West Indies all-rounder Rahkeem Cornwall in the BPL 2024 Players’ Draft. A total of 14 foreign cricketers got the team in the 3rd round of the draft.
When the Barbados Royals were set a mammoth target of 221 against the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in the Caribbean Premier League 2023, September 3, Cornwall scored 102 from 48 deliveries, with his knock including four fours and 12 sixes, before retiring hurt.
Teams used to use Rahkeem Cornwall, who is a powerful striker of the cricket ball, more often as a pinch hitter in the middle overs considering his ability to play spinners with ease. But then the off-spin bowling all-rounder worked on his pace game, and now he done the role of opener for the Barbados Royals in the CPL 2023.