The Bangladesh Premier League is one of the world’s most popular T20 cricket leagues. The league was only established in 2012, but it has quickly risen in prominence to be one of the most recognized cricket leagues worldwide. Since the first season in 2012, the league has only failed to take place on two occasions; in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and in 2014. The 2014 edition of the competition was suspended following a series of issues surrounding match-fixing, which led to the ban of several top guns in the league. Apart from these two occasions, the BPL has been successfully held every year since its debut season.
The 2023 Bangladesh Premier League tournament will be the ninth edition of the league. The previous eight seasons of the tournament have seen the Dhaka Franchises and the Comilla Victorians win three titles each, the most by a team in the tournament. The league title is also currently held by Comilla Victorians, who emerged victorious after a heated encounter with three-time finalist Fortune Barisal in the tournament’s final last year.
Overall, in the short time of the league’s existence, its popularity and viewership have grown massively even beyond Bangladesh. The league is now broadcast worldwide, with millions of viewers recorded yearly. In addition, betting sites like https://bd.parimatch.com/en/cricket/live have made it easier to not only stream BPL matches live but also allow punters to place live wagers on the games.
The BPL has not only grown in prominence over the years, but it has also progressively evolved, with some of the pioneer teams no longer in the competition and other new ones added. The latest addition to the team was the Comilla Victorians, who joined the league in 2015 and surprisingly won the tournament in their debut season.
The league is presently contested among seven teams, two of which were not among the 2012 pioneer teams. Here are the seven teams going into the 2023 BPL tournament.
Based in Chattogram City, the Chattogram franchise was one of the pioneer members of the Bangladesh Premier League. At the time of their establishment, the team was known as the Chittagong Kings. However, following a change of ownership which saw DBL Sports Limited take over the club in 2015, they remained as the Chittagong Vikings. It was not until 2019, the seventh BPL season, that they were officially known as the Chattogram Challengers. The renaming was also a result of another major takeover, which saw the Akhtar Group acquire sponsorship rights to the club.
Although Chattogram Challengers have competed in all the previous eight seasons in the BPL, they have not been able to win the BPL title on any occasion. However, the team appears to be set on a positive part of development following the recent involvement of the Akhtar Group in the club’s dynamics. Since the Group acquired sponsorship rights, the team has made quite some impressive signings that have impacted their gameplay and overall performance. As a result, they reached the playoffs in the last two editions of the BPL and even came third place in the tournament. They will also be challenging for the title in the 2023 edition of the competition.
Alongside the Dhaka franchises, Comilla Victorians have been the most successful team in the league so far, even though they only joined in 2015. One exciting fact about the team is that they have only been to the tournament finals on three occasions and have managed to emerge victorious in all three, including the most recent edition of the tournament. Going into the 2023
tournament, Comilla Victorians are clearly one of the favorites to lift the title. They’ll be looking to add another feather to their achievement by defending the title this year.
Based in Dhaka city, the Dhaka franchise has been the most affected by the change in ownership, which led to their frequent name changes. The team debuted in 2012 when the league was launched as the Dhaka Gladiators but became the Dhaka Dynamites following a change in ownership in 2015. Since then, the team has featured in the BPL as the Dhaka Platoon in 2019, Minister Dhaka in 2021 and are currently known as the Dhaka Dominators.
Even though they are the overall most successful team in the league, they last lifted the BPL title in their last triumph in 2016. The team has gone downhill since their early dominant spell, which saw them win three titles in four seasons. Since then, their performances have gone lower each season, with them failing to qualify for the group stage in 2022. However, they may be looking to bounce back this season.
Previously known as the Barishal Burners in 2012 and the Barishal Bulls in 2015, Fortune Barishal has yet to win the BPL title on any occasion. The team is often taunted as the most unlucky team in the league, having played in three different tournament finals without winning anyone. However, after coming runner-up last season, the team will be looking to challenge for the title again this year.
The Khulna Tigers were also one of the pioneer teams in the BPL, although they were formally known as the Khulna Royal Bengals. Unfortunately, like the Barishals, the team has yet to win the BPL on any occasion. The closest they’ve come to winning was their final encounter in 2019 when they lost to the Rajshahi Royals by 21 runs. However, they have made it to the playoffs on four occasions, including last season. They are looking to go a step further in the 2023 edition of the tournament.
The Rangpur Riders were not part of the pioneer BPL teams but were one of the earliest additions, as they joined the league in 2013. The team won the BPL title in 2017, defeating the Dhaka Dominators. The team will be looking to make a return with the 2023 edition of the competition, as they did not participate in the just concluded season.
The Sylhet Strikers are also one of the pioneer BPL teams. They debuted as the Sylhet Royals in 2012 and have since then gone through a series of managerial changes that saw them change their names quite a number of times. The team has featured in seven of the eight league tournaments held so far, with their highest achievement being a playoff finish in 2013. However, they have yet to make it past the competition’s group stage since then.
The BPL is played in a double round-robin format in which each team plays every other team in the league in a home-and-away format. At the end of the group stage round, the top four teams in the league will proceed to the next tournament stage, the playoffs. The playoff is played in a knock-out format, in which the four teams are paired into two groups; the eliminator and the qualifier.
The eliminator match is usually played between the third and fourth-placed teams in the league, and the losing team gets eliminated from the tournament. The qualifier match, on the other hand, is played between the first and second-placed teams. The winning team qualifies directly to the final, while the losing side faces the winner of the eliminator match. The winner from the eliminator proceeds to the final alongside the winner of the qualifier match, while the losing team is awarded third place.
The 2023 edition of the league is scheduled to kick off on the 6th of January, with the first encounter between Chattogram Challengers and Sylhet Strikers. The 2023 season will consist of a total run of 46 games, ending with the title-deciding final on the 16th of February.
The BPL is set to resume again this year after eight seasons of the top-flight cricket tournament. The tournament will run for approximately two months and will be contested among seven teams.
