Trend of name changes stemmed from BCB's loose policy regarding team ownership changes. Whenever a new owner joined the BPL, they tended to alter the team's name

The Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), the country's first franchise-based Twenty20 league, lost its distinction as a global cricket league and instead evolved into just another domestic competition.

With just two days remaining before the 10th season of BPL begins, the event's title sponsor has been revealed, demonstrating how difficult it was for the organizers to secure a title sponsor for what was once thought to be a profitable endeavor.

Launched in 2012, the BPL came four years after the Indian Premier League (IPL), which is regarded as the world's best Twenty20 tournament. Though the BPL was once hailed as the second-best T20 league, it has since reverted to being a local tournament in Bangladesh, struggling to draw in the top overseas players as it once did.

It seems that the BPL has had trouble attracting foreign coaches, even this year. All BPL teams are putting their faith in local coaches this season, many of whom have no prior coaching experience.

IPL's brand valuation surpasses $10 billion, including a startling 28% increase in 2023, according to Brand Finance, an independent brand valuation and strategy consultant that specializes in assessing intangible assets.

The Caribbean Premier League (CPL) and Pakistan Super League (PSL), two T20 competitions that began at the same time but are located on different continents, are making enormous sums of money, while the BPL's profit or loss has always been unclear.

A year after the BPL, the CPL started. It has developed into one of the top T20 leagues in the world during the last ten years. A post on the official CPL website states that CPL's 2022 economic impact on the area was estimated to be above $200 million, a 47% increase over its 2019 impact. For the first time, CPL's contribution to the economy exceeded $200 million. In total, approximately 700 million people watched the CPL in the 2022 season.

The Pakistan Cricket Board has also seen tremendous success from the PSL (PCB). The PSL's broadcasting rights were sold by the PCB for more than $24 million for the 2022–2023 season, with a reported price for the title sponsorship above $22 million. This is a significant increase from the $14 million secured for the 2019–2020 season, or a 57% jump in just three years. The board has sold title sponsorship and broadcasting rights for three seasons—2023, 2024, and 2025—for just BDT 16 crores and 35.5 crores, respectively (in USD, less than 5 million), according to BCB documents that UNB was able to access.

The PSL's performance is especially remarkable in light of non-cricketing obstacles. After a terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in 2009, Pakistan was prohibited from hosting international teams for over ten years. In spite of this, the PCB and PSL were able to develop a powerful brand. International cricket players have also been drawn to play in Pakistan by the league's allure, which has been crucial in normalizing Pakistan's standing in the game.

While the PSL and CPL in T20 cricket rose to prominence worldwide, the BPL was a complete failure. The BPL regulating body's secretary, Ismail Haider Mallick, expressed worry on the day of the competition that they might not be able to make even BDT 20 crores, or less than $2 million.

There have been 28 different teams that have competed in the BPL since its start in 2012; ten of them have only played in one season, which makes it difficult for the fans to feel like they own a team and support it. Supporters are unaware of the clubs that will compete in the upcoming season. The majority of the teams taking part this year don't have a well-defined brand.

All of the teams who competed in the first season have since folded because BPL teams, which were originally named after different Bangladeshi cities in order to garner support from the local community, often changed their branding. The Dhaka squad changed its name six times, followed by Sylhet, and Chattogram, which changed its name three times.

The lax policy of BCB accepting changes in team ownership was the cause of this trend of name changes. The team's name was usually changed when a new owner joined the BPL.

With seven BPL seasons played, including the upcoming 2024 edition of the competition with the same name, Comilla Victorians and Rangpur Riders are the team with the most editions played. For Comilla, it's clear that maintaining the ownership and brand name has been crucial to the development of their business and to their success, as evidenced by their record-breaking four BPL titles.

Unlike other leagues like PSL, which splits income with teams, the BPL lacks a viable revenue production mechanism, which causes franchisees to lose interest in the league. Revenue sharing has long been desired by BPL teams, most notably the Comilla Victorians, whose owners have threatened to pull out of the league after the 2024 season if the board does not act on this demand.

The BPL teams don't have a core group of players, in contrast to the IPL, which is the world's most successful T20 league. A cricket enthusiast would readily name the teams that MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli play for in the IPL and will instantly conjure up images of them donning the team uniforms. Nevertheless, this task becomes difficult in the BPL. An ardent follower may have trouble recognizing the color of Shakib Al Hasan's team uniform, even if they can name the five teams he has played for. Tamim Iqbal has played for seven different teams in the BPL, thus questions concerning his team and uniform become even more complicated. When one considers Mushfiqur Rahim, the wicketkeeper-batsman who has played for eight different teams in this T20 league.

The BPL doesn't even have a legitimate website where fans can see all of the league's statistics and history. For instance, the website can crash right away if you try to find out Shakib's best innings for every BPL team he has played for. (Well, BCB is working hard to create an excellent website for BPL, but several links on the most recent test conducted by UNB on January 18th appear to indicate that it is still under construction.)

BPL has mostly been Mirpur's event. The last three seasons have seen BPL matches held in Dhaka, Sylhet, and Chattogram; nevertheless, Dhaka has hosted the most matches, including all four of the top teams' play-off matches. ItIt contributed to the lack of interest of the rural fans who would have been in the stadium if the matches had taken place in other venues like Khulna, Barisal, Comilla, and other cities.


Meanwhile, BPL's broadcasting quality continued to be subpar. Despite switching to different broadcasters, the quality of the BPL transmission stayed the same.

All of these difficulties compound the BPL's difficulty in the cricketing world, affecting the league and its teams in their attempts to become a major sports brand and leading to a yearly drop in attendance.

The brand may have increased in value if executives from other elite leagues had worked with the BPL. Despite the enthusiasm shown by a few franchise owners from other leagues to join the BPL, the league's governing council decided to turn down those bids.

"Our goal is to run BPL in a way that suits our own style," Ismail stated. "“We prefer not to undertake actions that might relinquish the event's rights to others from us.”

End//News source:UNB Dhaka//voice7news.tv