Two phases of the BPL are over and the third phase is underway. From the beginning, it was declared that there will be 3 venues for this edition of BPL - Dhaka, Chattogram and Sylhet.
The first phase was in Dhaka, 2nd one was in Chattogram. It is only natural to assume that the 3rd phase is set to take place in Sylhet. Never mind, this is where things get absurd with the scheduling of BPL.
You might argue that BPL stopped making sense a long time ago. All the uncertainties with franchises and venues, all the drama with DRS and plenty more will make this BPL look irrelevant.
Yet the authority gets a benefit of the doubt because there were some external factors affecting those problems. But setting a fixture is not so. It is controlled by the governing council.
First things first, if there are three venues in a tournament it is only natural that they will get equal games, at least in the round-robin phase.
Among the 30 matches in the round-robin phase of BPL, Chattogram get 8, Sylhet get only 6 while Dhaka get 16. Along with that, Dhaka get all the knockout games as well.
As a result, it basically became a Dhaka League with two other stadiums just in case.
Then comes the fixture cycle which is equally or more hilarious. If you are following BPL this season, you might have wondered why Dhaka were playing every day as the first 3 days of the Dhaka phase featured a Dhaka match.
It was the same story in the Chattogram phase where Chattogram had 4 matches in a row. Apparently, governing body wanted to keep the maximum number of games for the home team.
Even if you agree with this apparent logic, then you notice that BPL has only 3 home teams. Add to that, Chattogram get 4 home games, Sylhet get 3 but the number is 6 for Dhaka.
The first game between Dhaka and Chattogram was played in Dhaka. The second one will be played in Sylhet. Where did Chattogram’s chance to take home advantage against the same team go?
The same can be seen in the other two fixtures. The first game between Dhaka and Sylhet was played in Dhaka but the second one was played in Chattogram.
The first game between Sylhet and Chattogram was played in Chattogram but the second one will be played in Dhaka.
Looking at all these, you’d still hope that every tie will have their two games in two different venues or two different phases at least. But anomaly persists here as well as both games of Dhaka-Barisal were played in Dhaka.
BPL has an even bigger surprise up next as Barisal-Khulna, Khulna-Chattogram saw something unique. Both games of these ties were not only played in the same venue but they were played in the same phase in consequent matchdays.
Pakistan Super League (PSL) is also happening at the same time and they are maintaining all of it with only two venues.
One easy way to solve this could be to exclude the second phase of Dhaka. There are six days between the end of the Chattogram and the start of the Sylhet phase. That’s because of the additional phase of Dhaka.
Instead of making the teams take a detour, they could have easily added some extra match-days in both Chattogram and Sylhet and then taken the teams to Sylhet from Chattogram.
All these points towards one thing - the governing body didn’t put much or any effort into the matter.
