Sports Desk: The players draft of the eleventh season of BPL has started. The activities of this draft started at a five-star hotel in the capital from 11:30 am. Earlier, the price list and categories of domestic and foreign players have been published. Rangpur Riders gave a surprise before the draft.

rangpur

Along with the franchise owners, team captains or iconic cricketers are present to create the draft battle. But this time BCB has faced a new experience. This time the country's best Dhallywood actor Shakib Khan has come to the draft. Another popular film actor Mamnoon Hasan Emon is with him.

Shakib Khan's organization Remark Harlan has bought the ownership of the franchise in Dhaka this year. They have already announced the name of the team. The team is participating in this year's BPL under the name of Dhaka Capitals.

Earlier in the afternoon, Dhaka Capitals informed that they are not getting English star Alex Hales in this year's BPL due to marriage. Dhaka was very excited about this World Cup winning opener in the team. But there were some controversies. Rumors were that Rangpur Riders, another team in BPL, had already kept Hells to themselves for four matches.

After the official statement of Dhaka Capitals yesterday, the discussion was suppressed. Everyone thought that Alex Hales was not coming to BPL. Hales aside, all eyes were on Monday morning's BPL draft. But Rangpur Riders officially announced the addition of Alex Hales to the team at midnight.

In their Facebook post, they announced the inclusion of this English star who won the World Cup. He has also played in BPL for Rangpur before this. As such, Rangpur Riders have retained their home boy through drama.

Earlier last Friday, Dhaka Capitals mentioned Alex Hales as their team. This star who is quite popular in the franchise tournament is a member of England's 2022 T20 World Cup winning team. He played 11 Tests, 70 ODIs and 75 T20s for the England national team and scored a total of 5,066 runs.

Then Hales requested to suspend this contract for the time being by talking about his marriage on Sunday. Dhaka accepted the request of the 35-year-old star.

In a formal statement, Dhaka Capitals said, in the statement they are saying - 'He has requested to suspend the contract due to his engagement related to marriage. We respect the importance of his personal life. Dhaka Capitals wish him all the best for his second innings.'

However, within 10 hours of this announcement, Rangpur informed that Hales is part of their team this season. Apart from the English A star, Rangpur have confirmed four more players in their squad. Mohammad Saifuddin and Pakistan's Khushdil Shah have come to the direct signing. Sheikh Mahedi and captain Nurul Hasan Sohan have been retained since the previous year.

The names of 188 local cricketers have been finalized in six categories. A maximum of Rs 60 lakh has been allocated for the domestic cricketers in 'A' category. Apart from this, the names of 440 foreign cricketers have appeared in the players' draft. Among them, there are 20 cricketers in the 'A' category with a maximum value of 70 thousand dollars or 8.3 lakh taka according to the current exchange rate. Apart from this, there are names of foreign cricketers in four other categories.

This time the price of category 'A' cricketers has been reduced, which was earlier Rs 80 lakh. In this way, the price of cricketers in each category has been reduced to 10 lakh rupees. In 'A' category - Shakib Al Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Liton Das, Mahmudullah Riyad, Shariful Islam, Mehdi Hasan Miraj, Rishad Hossain, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mustafizur Rahman, Nazmul Hossain Shanto, Tawheed Hriday and Taskin Ahmed.

There are 38 foreign cricketers in 'B' category, 66 in 'C' category, 135 in 'D' category and 181 in 'E' category. 3 new franchises have changed ownership since last season. Apart from this, Comilla Victorians are not staying, Durbar Rajshahi is joining.

In BPL, who are the foreigners in which category, how much is the remuneration

Note that seven teams are participating in the BPL 2025 XI. Dhaka Capital, Durbar Rajshahi, Fortune Barisal, Sylhet Strikers, Khulna Tigers, Rangpur Riders and Chittagong Kings.

According to the schedule, the 11th season of Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) will be played on December 27.