Mahbub Anam will take Faruque Ahmed’s place as the next chairman of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), the nation’s only franchise-based Twenty20 cricket competition, the Bangladesh Cricket Board said on Thursday, June 19. At a meeting on Thursday at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, the decision was made.
Faim Sinha will serve as a member of the governing council in the interim, while BCB’s powerful director Nazmul Abedin has been retained as member secretary of the BPL governing council.
“Mahbub Anam bhai was named as the new chairman of BPL governing council,” a BCB official told Cricbuzz after the proceedings.
Since the 2024–25 tournament marked the end of the three-year cycle, the BPL governing council will begin with the next edition.
Last year, BPL was criticised for non-payment issues and accused of fixing them. As a result, the organisation formed an investigative committee, the results of which have not yet been made public.
Although they will attempt to host the event in December, a BCB official acknowledged that this is not always possible. “BPL’s slot is always in December so we had a small meeting following the board meeting as everyone is busy with the funfair (to celebrate 25 years of Test cricket),” stated the official.
“The model that we wish to use for the BPL was the subject of some initial discussions. The largest obstacle we will face is raising the value of the BPL brand. Professional consultants will be enlisted to assist us, and consulting firms or agencies will be taken into consideration for this. We are considering a cycle of four or five years. We began the conversation tonight, and we will refine it the next week.
“We won’t know if we can complete BPL until we begin working. We need to develop a new model and strategy, and if we encounter too many obstacles, we might end up with five teams rather than seven. We want to host a T20 event, even if it’s only on a modest scale,” he continued.
Although there are concerns about holding the next BPL before the general elections, the source stated that they can still persuade businesses to purchase franchises if they can effectively market the format, as several previous franchise tournaments have done.
“Big challenge but international bidding and if we can enact a good business model like other franchise leagues, then good organisations would be interested to come,” stated the official. “We will pitch our ideas and our model to different companies and see whose approval we have got.”
In addition to the BPL, BCB directors organised the funfair to commemorate 25 years of Test cricket and talked about the media rights auction process.
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