BPL must shake off its propensity for controversy

Clear weather in the last 24 hours in Dhaka has allayed fears of any more delays in the BPL as the domestic T20 tournament tries to get off the ground on Tuesday. Though they might avoid further unseasonal rain, the organisers could not quite shake off another controversy, thereby continuing a theme that has dogged the tournament since its inaugural edition.

This time it was the rescheduling of the tournament that caused the trouble. After the tournament's original opening-day matches, on November 4, were washed off, the BPL governing council decided to call off the four matches scheduled for November 5 and 6. They asked the four teams from the opening day to decide if they wanted to replay their abandoned matches or take a point each.

At Saturday's press conference in which BPL member-secretary Ismail Haider Mallick explained the proposed changes, the BCB's vice-president Mahbubul Anam, a veteran cricket official, made it clear that the organisers couldn't actually take the one point away from the four teams. Rather, all seven teams had to agree on the replays. Rajshahi Kings and Comilla Victorians had initially expressed reluctance to replay their fixture, but later relented.

While the matter seems to have been settled amicably, the governing council and the franchises have set a dangerous precedent. What if another team wants a replay when their match gets abandoned later in this tournament or in the coming years? There may well be another amicable agreement, but what if that situation has greater import in the context of the tournament?

This is not the first time that the BPL's governing council has interpreted rules questionably. In 2012, one of the semi-finalists was decided at 2.45am on the morning of the match. There are still many theories - legitimate or conspiracy - about why Barisal Burners were given Chittagong Kings' place despite the latter having a better head-to-head record in a three-way tie with Dhaka Gladiators. It is assumed that Barisal's slightly higher run-rate was taken into account, but all of this had been calculated many hours before their dead-of-the-night announcement.

The incident came during an inaugural tournament that had already been damaged by corruption allegations; it got worse in 2013 when they had to form a tribunal to investigate more corruption charges, ending with the banning of former Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful and the owners of his Dhaka Gladiators team.

In the 2015 edition, Sylhet Superstars fielded two players without proper paperwork in their opening game against Chittagong Vikings. It ended up in a heated exchange between the Sylhet owners and Tamim Iqbal, a case that has yet to be closed by the BCB's disciplinary committee.

The tendency to tread on eggshells has been a feature of many decisions in the BPL, with the governing council or the tournament's technical committee churning out ever newer interpretations of the law. Even with a pending one-match ban on Tamim, the BPL couldn't quite take it upon themselves to implement the punishment during this tournament. They have passed the buck to the next 50-over domestic competition.

The 2015-16 edition of the BPL was called a success only because it was mostly controversy-free. If that's the goal, then the governing council must ensure a clearer understanding of the tournament's playing conditions and bylaws. Otherwise, more trouble awaits over the next four weeks.