Dhaka – The Dhaka Metropolis Premier Division Cricket League, which was scheduled to begin in the first week of this month, has been deferred by one month for the franchised based first class cricket–Bangladesh Cricket League (BCL).The most prestigious metropolis will now begin on February 5.Chairman of the Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metropolitan (CCDM) Kazi Inam Ahmed disclosed it while taking to a group of pressman on Wednesday.The BCB has announced a return to the draft system to determine players’ movements between clubs for the Dhaka Premier League this season denying last year’s system, whereby players could choose clubs based on their payment needs and other preferences.The transfer process, dubbed ‘players-by-choice’, will take place on January 20.This is the third time that the BCB has introduced this draft system, after trials in 2013 and 2016.After both instances, the BCB had said that the system will not return and they would revert to the traditional players transfer instead.However, popular demand forced a change, following complaints from several clubs of players demanding exorbitant fees.The CCDM will prepare a 12-member list of national player including Mashrafe, Mushfiq, Shakib and Tamim from where the club will recruit their required players.The clubs will be allowed to retain five players from the previous season while 12 top-grade players, from categories A+ and A, will not be among the retained players.Inam Ahmed said, “We also discussed about not retaining 12 players from A+ and A category. We will make a list of those twelve players soon and will publish it within the next week. So, those 12 players will be in draft. There may be a difference in the price attached to those 12 players, but the players will not choose their club. All clubs will have the right to choose the players from the draft.A 22-team Dhaka Metropolis 2nd Division Cricket League will begin on January 20. UNB news agency
