BPL mess will get worse, ‘unpaid’ Durbar Rajshahi international gamers caught in Dhaka

Any publicity is good publicity. Not always. The kind of publicity that the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) and the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) are getting, isn’t what they want to be associated with. One of the franchises in the BPL, Durbar Rajshahi, have treated players so poorly that many won’t return to the franchise league next year.

The BCB is already investigating match-fixing allegation and among all of this, we are hearing the foreign stars of Durbar Rajshahi haven’t been paid yet despite their journey in the BPL 2025 season ending. In fact, most of them are stuck in Dhaka as the team owner hasn’t arranged flights for them to return home.

According to ESPNcricinfo, Mohammad Haris (Pakistan), Aftab Alam (Afghanistan), Mark Deyal (West Indies), Ryan Burl (Zimbabwe) and Miguel Cummins (West Indies) haven’t received payment yet. Some of them have been paid only 25% of their total earnings, others haven’t received a single dime yet.

For the unaware, Durbar Rajshahi ended their campaign on Saturday (February 1). Most professional leagues, get payments sorted out. They are often paid in two or three installments, receiving money before and after the tournament. In BPL and Durbar Rajshahi’s case, players haven’t even received the daily allowance for the past 11 days.

The local players have it even worse. They are usually given 25% of their money deserved upfront but that hasn’t been the case this time. The owner of Durbar Rajshahi, Shafique Rahman, hasn’t been picking any calls and was recently captured with heavy security outside his hotel room. His car has been seized by the hotel authorities for non-payment and the players were also kicked out from one hotel over the same issue.

Nazmul Abedeen Fahim, member-secretary of BPL’s governing council shifted the blame to BCB for not properly vetting the franchise. “I think we didn’t judge the franchises properly. I think we didn’t verify their experience and financial strength. It has now put us in a difficult situation,” he told ESPNcricinfo.

Yesterday, Bangladesh’s sports adviser Asif Mahmud issued a stern warning to Durbar Rajshahi owner Shafique Rahman. “I spoke to the Rajshahi owner, who assured us that he will clear the payments. I have told him clearly that if he fails to do so, we will take legal steps. No more discussions. Our fact-finding committee will be looking into how this team came to be,” he said.