Players from West Indies, Sri Lanka and England to feature for Rangpur Riders in BPL 2017

Bangladesh Premier League’s franchise, the Rangpur Riders have officiated four overseas signings for the upcoming 2017 edition of the league, which is scheduled to take place in November. Since its debut in the league since 2013, the franchise has changed three owners already, and this year too, a new one is set to take over.

The new ownership has been made by the Basudhanara Group who have already started bringing in players for the fifth season.

Bdcrictime has reported that among the four overseas signings are West Indies’ Samuel Badree and Johnson Charles, England’s Ravi Bopara and Sri Lanka’s Thisara Perera. All of these have been confirmed by the new owner.

Among these, Perera has already played with the Riders in 2015, before being signed up by the Barisal Bulls in 2016. As for Badree, this will be his second season in the BPL. He participated in the inaugural edition in 2012 when he was signed up by Khulna Royal Bengal.

It can be recalled that Badree claimed a hat-trick for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the tenth edition of the India Premier League. For Bopara, the Riders will be his fourth team in the tournament as he has already played for the Chittagong Kings, Dhaka Dynamites and Sylhet Superstars.

As for Charles, this will be his first season of the BPL. It was also reported by bdcrictime that the franchise is also trying to invite West Indies swashbuckling T20 specialist Chris Gayle and South Africa’s Chris Morris to play for them.

Total of 60 matches to be played 

The first match of the 2017 edition will be played on November 4 when the defending champions will host the opening game of the tournament. The player draft will be held on September 16 and a total of 60 matches will be played, with Dhaka scheduled to host the finals.