BPL 2017: Sylhet to host BPL for the first time

The Sylhet International Cricket Stadium will be hosting the opening games of the 5th edition of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) on November 3rd. Sylhet is the 3rd venue besides Dhaka and Chittagong where a total of 46 matches including the qualifiers stage in the tournament will be hosted; with the final on December 12.

In the past two editions of the BPL, only the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka and Chittagong’s Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium hosted all the games in the tournament. With the Dhaka set to host the 63rd Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference from November 1 to 8, the BPL Governing Council decided to begin the tournament with Sylhet which gives an opportunity for Sylhet Sixers to play a couple of matches at their home venue.

This will be the first time Sylhet hosts a BPL match as Chittagong’s MA Aziz Stadium and Khulna’ Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium are the only other venues that have hosted BPL so far. Both the grounds hosted the first two editions of the BPL in 2012 and 2013 before the tournament was shelved for the next two years due to the match-fixing scandal.

8 matchest at Sylhet

The Sylhet stadium will host a total of eight games on November 3, 4, 6 and 7 as the Sylhet Sixers will be playing a game on each of the four days. The tournament then moves to the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium for the next 16 matches to be played between November 10 and 21 after the completion of the scheduled Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference.

Chittagong will host ten league matches between November 24 and 29 before the tournament returns to Dhaka for the final eight league matches and the qualifiers round. The Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur has hosted the knockout/qualifier stage of the previous four seasons and will continue the same this time as well. The Chittagong Vikings will get to play four home games like Sylhet Sixers while Dhaka Dynamites get a chance to feature in eight games at their home ground even if they bow out in the league stage.