Twelve matches of BPL3 T20 Cricket are already complete. Mashrafe led Comilla Victorians are leading the pack, Shakib’s Rangpur Riders are following next with Dhaka Dynamites not to far behind.

Star-studded Chittagong Vikings led by Tamim had mixed fortunes. Mushfique’s Sylhet superstars have been the most unfortunate team. Losing three close matches, they are languishing at the bottom.

Barisal Burners played less matches and have opportunities for improving. Some celebrated top ranked international cricketers will join their respective franchise soon.

Venue will move to Chittagong. Obviously, there will be change of fate and fortune. But from 12 matches the analysts can analyze how much such an expensive venture is helping Bangladesh Cricket?

Setting aside the poor over all management the substandard controversial umpiring, poor quality of wickets have raised questions about competence of present BCB management and tournament committee.

Several wrong decisions of umpires have reasons to be ridiculed. It mattered in some close contest. The umpiring is consistently inconsistent. We do not support arrogant behavior of players and ugly reactions.

But some diabolic decisions got under the skins and triggered indications for ill motivations. But we hope all these were unintentional and from incompetence. We hope match referees have taken notes and the next matches would witness some improvements.

T20 wickets usually have equal opportunities for batsmen and bowlers. Average winning scores are 160 plus. But when teams struggle to score 100 regularly questions arises about the quality of wickets. We cannot agree that there are reasons for wickets to deteriorate in 12 matches over 6 days in well-established test venue. It served nothing encouraging to Bangladeshi top cricketers.

So far other than Tamim Iqbal most of the others have struggled to come to terms with the wicket. Most frustrating are the performances of Soumya Sarkar, Sabbir Rahman and Rony Talukdar.

None other than Tamim among the local players is within top 5 batsmen though other than Sangakkara, Samuels and Misbah no other top quality international batsman has appeared. It is not a great sign for Bangladesh cricket.
 
Bangladesh will soon play Asia Cup in T20 format. BPL 3 does not have top players of India, Sri Lanka. Even the main players of Pakistan have not appeared yet.

The plans of tournament committee for preparing such kind of low slow wicket are rather harming Bangladesh interest. However, it was interesting witnessing young Bangladesh bowlers doing well. But on ICC sponsored tournaments wickets would be different.

Young Bangladesh players may find it difficult in adjusting quickly. We are sure substantial unaccounted money has been spent in preparing wickets. Why not more than two venues could be allocated?

BPL organized on franchise basis must have far-reaching objectives of popularizing cricket in regions outside Dhaka. Thousands of dollars are being spent and possibly major portion of these may be black money.

If such investment fails to draw capacity crowd in all matches and if these serve little for local cricket, we would find no logic of arranging such high-sounding BPL.

Instead, the sponsors can spend this money in improving playing facilities in respective franchise and organize cricket tournament in the grassroots.

Bowlers like Mustafiz, Al Amin, Mohammad Shahid, Abu Jayed Chowdhury, Abu Haidar Rony are enjoying bowling and performing.

Youngster like Shadman, Mustafiz are rubbing shoulders with great Sagrakkara, Soumya Sarkar sharing dressing room with Misbah and Sammy, Abu Haidar bowling in tandem with his idol Mashrafe are the highlights of BPL 3 so far.

Most of the matches have gone down the wire. But till now the better teams have emerged among the top.

No betting scandals have been surfaced so far. Nevertheless, the tournament is entering business session now. We hope fairness will be ensured, fans are not cheated. Umpiring must improve a great deal, wickets must be better.

BDST: 0839 HRS, NOV 29, 2015
RS