Nine foreign cricketers, including West Indies’ Kieron Pollard, have withdrawn from the Bangladesh Premier League player auction that will be held today in Dhaka. The BPL governing council, however, has also added two overseas players to the auction – West Indian batsman Marlon Samuels, and Sri Lankan opener Tillakaratne Dilshan.
Pollard played for Dhaka Gladiators, last season’s champions, and this year he was in the golden category, which has a salary between $75,000 and $150,000. England batsman Michael Lumb, who was in category A, also pulled out. The other players to withdraw were Craig Ervine (Zimbabwe), Cameron Merchant (New Zealand), James Taylor and Ed Young (England), Michael Smith (South Africa), Fawad Alam (Pakistan) and Chesney Hughes (West Indies).