Shakib the top pick at BPL auction

ESPN Cricinfo: Shakib Al Hasan became the most expensive buy in the Bangladesh Premier League when he was acquired by Dhaka for US$ 365,000 in one of the many tiebreakers in the day. Imran Nazir, the second most valuable player at US$ 280,000, was bought by Chittagong in another tight bidding battle. As a result, the auction lasted nearly eight hours with its share of drama.

The start of the auction was also the business end of it, as the golden category players both local and foreign were fought over. With small pay brackets, the seven BPL franchises often locked up at the highest price quickly, but then had to write up their price on a piece of paper, which was then read out by the auction commissioner, the highest bidder winning the player’s services.

Half an hour into the auction, six franchises hit the US$ 75,000 ceiling for Shakib. But when the written-up amounts were revealed, Dhaka’s bid was US$ 152,000 more than their nearest rival Rajshahi, who had quoted US$ 213,000 while newcomers Rangpur were third with a US$ 160,000 bid.

Shakib, however, will only get US$ 162,000 because according to the league rules, anything above the ceiling (in this case US$ 295,000 more than US$ 75,000) gets distributed between the Bangladesh Cricket Board (60%), the player (30%) and game on sports (10%), tournament’s event management firm. Tamim Iqbal would have joined Shakib but Rajshahi won the coin toss after the two franchises were tied on US$ 165,000 even after the tiebreaker.

There was more drama when Nasir Hossain’s turn came. Sylhet had begun their celebrations after they were announced winners, but the commissioner belatedly realised that one last envelope had remained unopened. As it turned out, the last bid was the highest one. Rangpur, who had bid US$ 208,137 against Sylhet’s US$ 151,000, got the services of Nasir and left the Sylhet owners in a shock.

Rangpur threw more interesting numbers during the afternoon. They bought left-handed batsman Junaid Siddique for US$ 67,757 and left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak for US$ 92,777. They also bid US$ 72,772 for Shahzaib Hassan and US$ 89,792 for Ahmed Shehzad unsuccessfully. The trend inspired Khulna too as they made a successful bid of US$ 51,105 for Farhad Reza.

The auction for the B category of foreign players, went by quietly but the interest picked up again for the local players in the same category. There was a tiebreaker for almost every name; many going into the six-figure mark much against their track records. Rookie seamer Abul Hasan fetched US$ 121,000 from Rajshahi while left-arm spinner Elias Sunny went for US$ 106,000 to Barisal after a six-way tie on US$ 50,000. Sylhet got young batsman Mominul Haque for US$ 127,000 beating four other teams.

The nature of the bidding was such that teams had to make blind guesses, making some bids lop-sided. For example in case of Abul, the next best offer behind Dhaka’s US$ 121,000 was Khulna’s US$ 53,000.

After a frenetic auction day, the major challenge for the BPL will be to ensure that the players are paid according to the agreed schedule. Each player will receive 25% of his payments before the tournament starts on 18 January and the next 25% by the end of the tournament in mid-February.

The other 50% will have to be paid within six months from the end of BPL 2013. The spectre of unpaid player wages in BPL’s first season would loom over the hype until these payments are finally made.

The Squads

Barisal Burners: Alok Kapali, Shafiul Islam, Elias Sunny, Shuvagata Hom, Shabbir Rahman, Ifthikar Ahmed, Jubair Ahmed, Alauddin Babu, Al Amin, Nazmul Apu, Saeed Ajmal, Sunil Narine, Brad Hodge, Azhar Mahmood, Umar Gul, Kamran Akmal, Phil Mustard, Kabir Ali and Hammad Azam

Sylhet Royals: Mushfiqur Rahim, Sohag Gazi, Mominul Haque, Nazmul Hossain, Imtiaz Hossain, Nazmul Hossain Milon, Jupiter Ghosh, Suhrawadi Shuvo, Tino Best, Andre Russell, Dwayne Smith, Azim Ghumman, Zulfiqur Babar, Hamilton Masakadza, Babar Azam, Sohel Ahmed and Paul Stirling

Duronto Rajshahi: Tamim Iqbal, Ziaur Rahman, Jahurul Islam, Abul Hasan, Farhad Hossain, Moktar Ali, Taijul Islam, Shaker Ahmed, Monir Hossain, Marlon Samuels, Abdul Razzaq, Mohammad Sami, Shahzaib Hasan, Alex Hales, Khalid Latif and Sean Ervine

Rangpur Riders: Nasir Hossain, Abdur Razzak, Junaid Siddique, Imrul Kayes, Mehedi Maruf, Shamshur Rahman, Taposh Ghosh, Dhiman Ghosh, Mohammad Sharif, Fidel Edwards, Kevin O’Brien, Sharjil Khan, Anwar Ali and Raja Ali Dar

Dhaka Gladiators: Shakib Al Hasan, Mohammad Ashraful, Anamul Haque, Mashrafe Mortaza, Raqibul Hasan, Mosharraf Hossain, Soumya Sarkar, Litton Das, Shahid Afridi, Luke Wright, Owais Shah, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Lasith Malinga, Joshua Cobb, Chris Liddle, Darren Stevens and Kaushal Lokuarachchi

Khulna Royal Bengal: Nazimuddin, Shahriar Nafees, Farhad Reza, Shahadat Hossain, Mizanur Rahman, Mohammad Mithun, Dollar Mahmud, Sanjamul Islam, Nabil Samad, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Awaiz Zia, Umar Amin, Ahmed Shehzad, Riki Wessels, Haris Sohail, Bilawal Bhatti and Shane Harwood

Chittagong Kings: Mahmudullah, Naeem Islam, Rubel Hossain, Arafat Sunny, Enamul Haque jnr, Aftab Ahmed, Marshall Ayub, Nurul Hasan, Imran Nazir, Dwayne Bravo, Wahab Riaz, Ravi Bopara, Ryan Ten Doeschate, Jacob Oram, Jason Roy, Kevon Cooper, Brendon Taylor and  Saeed Anwar jnr