Sylhet confirm signing of three local players for BPL season 5

After suffering a one year ban, the Sylhet franchise is all set to make their return to the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL). Formerly known as the Sylhet Super Stars, the franchise has decided to appear under a new name in the upcoming edition of the BPL, Surma Sixers Sylhet. The newest franchise of BPL season 5, Sylhet have now secured the services of three local players, all-rounder Nasir Hossain, wicket-keeper batsman Nurul Hasan Sohan and spinner Taijul Islam.

Hossain played the previous edition for the defending champions of the tournament, Dhaka Dynamites while spinner Taijul Islam was part of the Barisal franchise which now has been ruled out from the tournament this season after failing to meet financial terms with the BPL GC. Although the other six teams had confirmed their local players retainees’ list earlier, Monday was the deadline for Sylhet to submit their three local picks to the BPL Governing Council.

They were originally inducted in 2012 in the inaugural BPL edition as the Sylhet Royals. However, the Royals were one of the teams to be dissolved in 2013 and the franchise was then to current owners ALIF and was rebranded as the Super Stars for the 2015 edition. In the 2016 season, they received a one-year suspension due to misbehavior of the team owner with cricketer Tamim Iqbal.

Foreign signings

As the franchise wasn’t a part of BPL-4, they did not have the opportunity to retain any player. Hence, the Bangladesh Premier League governing council had given them the opportunity of directly picking three local players from the available domestic draft in order to match the other six teams in the tournament.

The Sylhet franchise has earlier also roped in some of the big names in world cricket – England’s Chris Jordan and opening batsman Dawid Malan. The 29-year-old left handed opener Malan will be a good addition to the batting line-up with his decisive stroke play and quick footwork.