Dhaka Gladiators, the Bangladesh Premier League champions, have reacted strongly after the schedule of this year’s Champions League T20 was announced without the two-time BPL winners. Of all the Test-playing countries, domestic Twenty20 champions from only Bangladesh and Zimbabwe have never participated in the CLT20.
They had also alleged that the BCB did not send out any requests to one of the three cricket boards that organise the tournament, but the BCB has denied this claim.
“I still can’t [believe] that in spite of all the positive vibes, we were kept out of the CPL [sic] T20 this year and to be honest I couldn’t find any logic in that,” Shihab Chowdhury, Dhaka Gladiator’s managing director, said in a statement. “We met the ICC and were waiting for another meeting with the organisers of the tournament but fixture was released before we could make a move.”
“We were informed that Bangladesh Cricket Board was supposed to recommend and request the BCCI. But surprisingly this was never done.”
In reply, BPL secretary Ismail Haider Mallick has said they never got a reply from the organisers, but they will try to include the BPL champions. “They [Dhaka Gladiators] are misinformed about our stance. We have sent letters to the Champions League T20 committee but didn’t get any replies from the concerned people. We will send letters to the BCCI, CA and CSA in this regard next week.
“They went to meet the ICC but I don’t think the ICC has anything to do with this,” Mallick told ESPNcricinfo.
“We were even told by the concerned that process is going and there was a very good chance for us to participate in the tournament this year, but no communication was made by the concerned thus we were not considered,” he said.
