DHAKA, Bangladesh, CMC – All-rounders Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo are the two West Indians whose names have been identified with the start of the Bangladesh Premier League Twenty20 next year.
ESPN-Cricinfo said Pollard and Bravo, have been named among at least 25 foreign players who have made themselves available for the tournament, scheduled to start on February 9 with the Final to be played on February 29.
The Trinidad & Tobago and West Indies pair would be heading into the tournament fresh from the Caribbean Twenty20 Championship which concludes on January 22.
“The main thing is the Bangladesh players have to be available,” Arun Lal, the former Indian opener and consultant to Game on Sports, the tournament organisers, told the website.
The 20-day tournament will feature six teams that will play each other twice each in a round-robin format over 33 matches to be held in Chittagong and Dhaka.
Teams will be allowed to field five foreign players in their final 11s, as opposed to four in the IPL with former Australia stars Adam Gilchrist and Mathew Hayden, Pakistani Kamran Akmal and England fast bowler James Anderson reportedly among the imported players for the tournament.
As in the first season of the IPL, each team will have an icon player. The Bangladesh Cricket Board announced that Tamim Iqbal will be the icon player for Chittagong, Mohammad Ashraful for Dhaka, Alok Kapali for Sylhet, Shahriar Nafees for Barisal, Mushfiqur Rahim for Rajshahi and Shakib Al Hasan for Khulna.
Lal said there may be a problem getting Indian players to participate due to a scheduling clash with their domestic 50 overs-a-side competition, but he expected they could still come aboard for part of the season.
The organisers are also hoping that the winner of the BPLT20 will be given a place in the Champions League Twenty20 next year.