BCB to Take Legal Action Against Durbar Rajshahi Franchise for Unpaid Dues in BPL

The 2024 Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) is witnessing thrilling matches and standout performances. The seven teams are battling to qualify for the playoffs, fans are very excited to watch the high-scoring games. Apart from this Durbar Rajshahi team is not paying salaries to their players.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is going to take legal action against Durbar Rajshahi for missing payment deadlines for overseas players and not paying the team hotel bills. Iftekhar Rahman was the BCB media committee chairman. He addressed this issue on Sunday with the media, that the board had already given enough time and chance to the Durbar Rajshahi franchise.

Iftekhar Rahman told The Daily Star (via ESPNCricinfo): "We have to take legal action by any means now. The money has to be paid. Otherwise, BPL's reputation will be ruined. The violation of contractual obligations like cheque dishonour and other issues will be addressed and we will file cases for all matters, as per the merit of the breaches. The board has given them enough chances. But they have crossed all limits. They were given a contract. There are breaches of contract clauses. Until today, we didn't take any action but now, we will take all the legal actions against them." 

The things even got worse over the weekend when Rajshahi's players refused to play a match against Rangpur Riders in Mirpur and also the players skipped the practice session. This issue makes BPL break the rules. According to BPL rules a team must have at least two and at most four overseas players in the playing XI. But on Sunday the match between Rangpur Riders and Durbar Rajshahi the foreign players of Rajshahi refused to play the match.

During that press confrenceTaskin said. "It was certainly a new experience, I heard that there was a problem with our hotel booking. There was probably a mix-up between the Sheraton and the Westin. We changed hotels [on Sunday morning] and then two hours before heading to the stadium, we heard that the foreign players wouldn't go [to the match]. We got a call from the board, telling us that at least you [local] guys play. They called the foreign players, telling them that the payment would be cleared. Still [they] didn't come.

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This was the first time in BPL history that a team played without a single overseas player. But the Durbar Rajshahi team captain Taskin Ahmed led the team to a 2-run victory over Rangpur Riders. This situation has frustrated the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and they see it as the lowest point of the tournament. 

"When I asked [the overseas players], they said they won't play without money. I just said it's their call. What can I say, I am also a player. We really felt bad playing without the foreign players. We requested the board to play with local players. They allowed it, and then winning the game gave us some respite."

Taskin was the leading wicket-taker of this tournament with 24 wickets and his best spell is 7/19. Taskin also said at the post-match presentation he wanted to play the tournament in a peaceful environment and confirmed that Rajshahi had paid the local players some money on Sunday.

"We were given the cheque today. We will place it today. One can hope [it goes through]. If the cheque bounces like this wicket, we are in trouble. Everyone expects to play the BPL in a peaceful environment, so when these things happen, we get disappointed. BPL is quite popular this season, but our team is having problems. I tried to boost up the team by telling them that this is our stage to perform, regardless of what's happening elsewhere. The feeling is certainly not nice, but we are trying our best." Taskin said.

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