Big crowds emerge as biggest surprise in BPL first phase

The Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) has started in better than expected fashion in Dhaka.

The first phase in Mirpur's Sher E Bangla National Cricket Stadium has ended as the teams move to Sylhet to begin the next phase of the 10th edition of the T20 franchise tournament.

There was plenty of doom and gloom about the BPL this year, especially with three other T20 tournaments - the Big Bash, SA20 and ILT20 - happening simultaneously and top overseas players not being available.

Fans were not expected to turn up, especially on Mirpur pitches that have faced the biggest amount of criticism over the years for being low-scoring and difficult to play on wickets. 

But that has not deterred fans from showing up in big numbers at the country's 'home of cricket' in Mirpur. 

The pitches have also produced more runs than expected and scores above 180 have been chased down.

Chattogram Challengers and Durdanto Dhaka - two teams that don't have the biggest names have done relatively well so far.

Chattogram have won two out of three games while Dhaka have won one - against the defending champions Comilla Victorians - and lost one.

None of the teams are yet looking like the outright favourites and that has perhaps added more interest among fans.

Another big reason for fans to turn up, especially during the Fortune Barishal games is the trio of Tamim Iqbal, Mahmudullah Riyad and Mushfiqur Rahim playing together. 

The two games where Barishal played saw big crowds and perhaps the return of Tamim Iqbal and Mahmudullah Riyad in competitive cricket after months has led to that. 

There were loud cheers and chants for both players and one of the fans Rasel Ahmed, who supports Comilla, was also supporting the two Barishal players as the teams locked horns in the 8th match on Tuesday evening. 

"I want Tamim bhai and Riyad bhai to do well and prove the doubters and those politicking against them wrong, but I want Comilla to win," the university student said and Comilla did win the match in a final over thriller. 

Some fans are using the new metro rail, which has made travelling to the stadium much easier and less time-consuming. 

"It takes just 15 minutes to come to the stadium from my house in Uttara whereas before it could have been hours so I think that's a big reason for more fans coming this time," Jamal Uddin, an HSC student said.

The match between Rangpur Riders and Fortune Barishal gave fans a glimpse of seeing Shakib Al Hasan versus Tamim Iqbal for the first time. 

That piqued the interest of many fans, especially those at the stadium.
Despite being the most decorated cricketer in Bangladesh's history, Shakib got jeered by fans at the ground in that match against Tamim's team.

Fans expressed their displeasure over Tamim's exclusion from the ODI World Cup squad, where Bangladesh did poorer than expected and perhaps saw Shakib as the reason behind the exclusion. 

Over the last few days two of Pakistan's biggest names - Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan - have also joined their franchises and that brought fans over.

There were fans with placards for Babar and he did not disappoint as he helped his team Rangpur Riders win against Mashrafe Mortaza's Sylhet Strikers. 

The Mirpur stadium also had new purple coloured lights installed in the Grand Stand area to go with the colour theme of this season.

The scorecard graphics have been a mixed bag but they have tried to maintain a rickshaw art theme to everything and DRS has also returned; the effort and idea are there even though it lacks a finishing touch.

Once, the BPL was the second-best franchise T20 league after the Indian Premier League (IPL), but over the years, with poor pitches, lack of local players shining and being developed, dwindling availability of top foreign players due to other, more lucrative leagues, controversies over unpaid salaries and franchises not making profits, the BPL has lost its lustre.

But this season, despite most of these issues remaining, fans have turned up, and cricket fans are talking about the matches, the players and the tournament, mostly in good light.

That is at least better than what was expected at the beginning.