BCB excludes several cricketers from BPL auction list to ‘safeguard the league’

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) confirmed that they excluded several cricketers' names from Sunday's 12th Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) T20 auction list based on advice received from the newly established Integrity Unit to safeguard the lone franchise-based competition in the country.

They issued a clarification following media reports stating that Anamul Haque Bijoy, Mosaddek Hossain and several other players have been left out of the final list of local players for the upcoming auction.

Under the title 'Clarification on Local Player List for Sunday's BPL Auction', BCB stated: "Earlier this month, the President of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) received the report of the Independent Inquiry Committee. Following this, all matters relating to potential corruption have been referred to the Board's newly established Integrity Unit, which is overseen by the Unit's Independent Chair, Alex Marshall. The Integrity Unit operates independently and is responsible for ensuring that issues of this nature are handled without interference.

"The BCB takes all allegations of corruption extremely seriously. In preparing for BPL Season 12, the Governing Council received advice from the Independent Chair of the Integrity Unit on steps necessary to further safeguard the League. Based on that advice, a number of individuals, including some players, have not been invited to participate in this year's tournament."

Interestingly, they added that "it would be inappropriate to comment on any individual while reviews or investigations may still be underway by the operationally independent Integrity Unit."

"This is a BPL-specific measure taken to ensure fairness of the investigation process and to protect the integrity of the League. It does not apply to other domestic cricket events conducted under the jurisdiction of the BCB."

It ended with: "The cricket fans of Bangladesh, deserve a clean tournament and the BCB will continue to take all reasonable measures to protect the game."