Who’s playing in the Bangladesh Premier League?

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Twenty20 leagues all operate in the same way. They try and attract as many stars as possible and then they use local players as padding. However, different leagues have to settle for different stars.

Some players will turn up for anything. Azhar Mahmood, Dirk Nannes, Shaun Tait – obviously all of these guys are going to be appearing in the Bangladesh Premier League. But who else is there? Who else has flown over to Bangladesh for an unlikely payday?

Here are our favourites:

How do these deals come about? Who contacts whom? Were Rangpur Riders desperate to have Cameron Borgas in their side? Did they stop at nothing to secure his services?

How does Daniel Smith get a contract? He’s not a professional cricketer. Presumably he doesn’t have an agent. How did Khulna Royal Bengals get hold of him?

How in hell does Chris Liddle find himself in the same team as Tillakaratne Dilshan, Shakib Al Hasan and Shahid Afridi? What evidence was put in front of the Dhaka Gladiators management team that made them say: “Yes! Chris Liddle is the man for us. Those six, penetrating overs he bowled against the touring West Indians last year in that washed out fixture at Hove have utterly convinced us. He completely outbowled Kirk Ogilvy Wernars in what was technically a first-class fixture and there aren’t many people who can say they’ve done that.

DON'T BE LIKE GATT!

Mike Gatting wasn't receiving the King Cricket email when he dropped that ludicrously easy chance against India in 1993.

Coincidence?

Why risk it when it's so easy to sign up?

47 comments

  1. Ah, Darren Stevens. The journeyman’s journeyman.

    When Darren Stevens made his first class debut, Josh Cobb was seven years old.

  2. Did you not get invited, KC? We’re all playing in it – me, Ged, Sam, Ceci, Smudge, Dandy Dan… Sarah is opening the bowling for the Barisal Bunsen Burners! Apparently the clubs just trawled through all the cricket websites they could find and picked people based on their depth of understanding of cricket. I can’t believe they missed you! I got in ‘cos I said something about shutting your eyes and slogging or something. And we each get a million Stanford Dollars a match! It’s great. I can’t believe you’re not here. You and Charles Colvile seem to be the only ones missing.

  3. I eagerly clicked on the links only to find they didn’t lead to your articles about these sportsmen, but to their cricinfo profiles. To make up for this, I ask that you start writing an article on each of the aforementioned cricketers.

    If you need to find a way get out of this, you could contact Ajay Shirke.

  4. Is Charles Coventry the only famous cricketer named after a Midland’s city?
    Darren Stevens is awesome

  5. Why is Riki Wessels called Riki? Neither his first name nor his middle name bear any resemblance to the name Riki. Also, should it not be ‘Ricky’? It’s this kind of thing that makes me lose faith in humanity.
    *obligatory Darren Stevens is awesome*

  6. Most of the players you’re bagging bowl seam so it’s safe to say their local replacements would be worse regardless.

  7. Darren Stevens is awesome. His cricinfo article states he played for Dhaka Gladiators and Dhaka Gladiators.

    1. Indeed. Why go with the nickname ‘Smithy’ when they could have used ‘The Troglodyte’ or something like that?

    2. Re Aussie drugs, I wonder if any names are going to be named in the cricket world.

      Maybe we should start naming some names here.

      You go first.

    3. We’re just naming names, right? We’re not naming names for any particular reason. There’s no MEANING behind our naming these names. They’re just names. That we’re naming.

      Matthew Hayden.

    4. Warwick Armstrong, who’s:

      a) Clearly on drugs
      b) Too dead to sue for the defamation above
      c) Named after a Midlands city

    5. I heard don bradman practised as a boy hitting a ball with a stump while on lsd no wonder he was so good

    6. Warwick is a town, not a city, Bert.

      Yes, this comment is sad.

      Sadder even because I thought of Warwick Armstrong first time around and Googled to find out whether or not Warwick (and Stoke) qualified as Cities.

      I should have better things to do, I do have better things to do…

  8. I think drugs were legal when Don Bradman played, Did we ever find out the current Australian Test squad player unofficially warned for taking cocaine on the 24th Oct 2012?

  9. We should all be playing in the BPL. They don’t pay you to play. As long as you can afford the airfare to get there!

    Which explains why Dan Smith is playing – as he is not a professional cricketer he doesn’t need to be paid.

  10. Dan Smith also plays for the Sydney Sixers after the Sydney Thunder, who probably wouldn’t beat any team in the BPL, dropped him from their squad.

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