The much-awaited 10th edition of Bangladesh Premier League, the country’s lone franchise-based T20 competition, will get underway at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur on Friday.

In the opening day fixtures, reigning champions Comilla Victorians will take on newcomers Durdanto Dhaka at 02:30pm (BST) while last year’s runners-up Sylhet Strikers will face Chattogram Challengers at 07:30pm (BST), report The Daily Sun.

This year, the tournament will witness more use of technology as the Bangladesh Cricket Board has already ensured the use of DRS, spider camera and road runner camera from the beginning of the tournament in order to increase the broadcasting quality.

The BCB has also given more emphasis in completing the overs in due time this year. They have given strict orders to the franchises to maintain the time, unlike the previous tournaments where the teams took more than the scheduled time to complete their respective overs in the matches.

Some renowned commentators such as Ramiz Raza, Aamer Sohail, Sir Curtly Ambrose, Russel Arnold and Athar Ali Khan will be heard from the commentary box during the tournament as well.

However, the franchises had to struggle to sign big foreign names this year as the tournament clashes with SA20 and ILT20. 

On Thursday, most of the teams completed their last practice session ahead of the showpiece tournament.

Dhaka, Chattogram, Sylhet and Khulna Tigers took part in their respective training session at the National Academy Ground while Comilla practiced at the Masco Shakib Cricket Academy and Rangpur Riders and Fortune Barishal completed their respective training sessions at the Bashundhara Sports Complex and PKSP.

Dhaka, who built a reasonably young squad, will be led by all-rounder Mosaddek Hossain and he also expressed his optimism of doing well in the tournament.

“This is a young and exciting team. We are hopeful of doing well with this squad,” Mosaddek said in a press conference which was also attended by his deputy experienced pacer Taskin Ahmed.

“I will always try to share my experience with the team so that the team gets benefited,” Taskin said.

Meanwhile, Chattogram skipper Shuvagata Hom claimed that their first match against Sylhet will be very important for his team as they are looking to seal their spot in the playoffs first.

“The first match of a tournament is very important. We are more focused on the first game…We will try to win the first game. If we can finish the game well, we expect to have a good tournament,” Shuvagata said.

“The team we have this year, the players we have, we are all confident. Our first goal is reaching the playoffs, and we are focusing on that. We are hopeful that we can reach the playoffs,” he added.

Apart from Dhaka, the tournament will also be held in Sylhet and Chattogram. Sylhet will host a total of 12 matches – the highest number of matches in their history – between 26 January and 3 February while Chattogram will also host the same number of matches on 13-20 February.

The playoffs and the final, however, will take place in Mirpur. The final will be held on March 1.

Bd-pratidin English/Lutful Hoque