BPL 2018-19 Schedule, Player Draft, Live Streaming & Team Squads

The Bangladesh Premier League is a T20 tournament held domestically in Bangladesh and in the sixth season there will be six teams representing six different cities in the country taking part in the tournament. Chittagong Vikings was supposed to be the seventh team but their withdrawal led to a reduction in the matches. Get all the information for this season of the tournament including BPL schedule, squads, tickets, live streaming and TV options, predictions among others.

The next edition of the BPL, which will now be played from January 5 2019, will have its player draft on October 25. According to latest news, the BPL Draft will not have any icon players and instead have an A+ category to go with five other categories in the form of A, B, C, D and E.

A+ Category Players

Liton Das, Mustafizur Rahman, Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah, Mashrafe Mortaza

The base price for the foreign players has increased this year. The base price for A+ category is $200,000 while the base prices for those under A,B,C,D and E will be $50,000, $75,000, $50,000, $30,000 and $20,000 respectively.

The league was expected to be hosted in Bangladesh in October earlier, but with the national elections expected to happen in November, the provision of security might have been an issue. As a result, the BPL 2018-19 will now begin from January 5 and will go all the way up to February 8 as the seven teams will fight it out for the top four playoffs spot. The latest change in schedule will also see BCB host Zimbabwe in two Tests and three ODIs as they look to get their Test match stocks up. The exact Bangladesh Premier League schedule will be released soon by the Bangladesh Cricket Board soon enough.

Retained Players from previous BPL season:

Rajshahi Kings: Mominul Haque, Mehidy Hasan, Mustafizur Rahman and Zakir Hasan

Sylhet Sixers: Liton Das, Sabbir Rahman, Nasir Hossain and Sohail Tanvir

Comilla Victorians: Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Mohammad Saifuddin and Shoaib Malik

Rangpur Riders: Chris Gayle, Mohammad Mithun, Nazmul Islam and Mashrafe Mortaza

Dhaka Dynamites: Shakib al Hasan, Sunil Narine, Rovman Powell and Kieron Pollard

Khulna Titans: Mahmudullah, Ariful Haque, Nazmul Hossain and Carlos Brathwaite

The seven teams that participated in the previous season were Comilla Victorians, Dhaka Dynamites, Khulna Titans, Rangpur Riders, Sylhet Sixers, Rajshahi Kings and Chittagong Vikings. The same teams are expected to feature in the next edition of the tournament as well. The Riders will start off as the defending champions after they won the title by beating Dhaka in the final last year.

Teams play on a home and away basis and the top four sides make it to the playoffs. However, matches are not exactly played at home and away, and are distributed among a set, pre-decided venues. Last season, for instance, the league was played at three venues, Chittagong, Dhaka and Sylhet. A total of 42 games will be played during the league stage of the tournament with each side playing 12 of them. The top four will then be involved in a playoffs where the top two sides will get two chances to make it to the final.

How can one watch the Bangladesh Premier League live?

There are various options to be able to do that in various countries. In Bangladesh, it’s the Gazi TV which is the host broadcaster and the matches can be watched live on Maasranga as well. The other countries include India, where it is live on DSport, Lemar TV in Afghanistan, Flow TV in the Caribbean, Geo Super in Pakistan, Star Times in South Africa and the rest of Africa, Free Sports in the UK, Willow.tv in USA and Canada and Cricingif online for Middle East and North Africa.

How are the players selected in the Bangladesh Premier League squads?

The squads are made up on domestic and overseas players. A Draft is held each year for the selection after a few players are retained by both teams. Four overseas players will make it to the playing XI during the tournament.

Teams will be allowed to retain up to four players in their team and the names of these four players should be informed to the BPL Governing Council by September end.

Two other players can be bought from outside the draft while the rest of the squad will need to be selected through the BPL Draft.

The forthcoming edition of the tournament will see teams allowed the use of DRS. This will be the first time in the history of BPL T20 that the umpiring decision-review system will be used.

According to an official statement: “There will be review [UDRS] in the BPL. Each team will have a review in every innings. There will be one foreign umpire in each match.”