BPL: A rehabilitation center

The BPL has done it again! This time, the credit (or discredit) goes to Durbar Rajshahi, who has  brought back another cricketer seemingly lost to the cricketing world. Midway through the tournament, the team has signed West Indies' Miguel Cummins, who last played a recognised T20 match five years ago.

The phrase commonly seen on social media—"The BPL is a rehabilitation centre!"—might as well be taken seriously now. After all, if viewed from that perspective, this is an accomplishment in its own right.

This isn't a new occurrence in this year's BPL either. Players like Bosisto, Shubham Ranjan, and Farmanullah are also participating in the tournament. These are cricketers whose names might require some extra effort to locate in the record books. Even so, Cummins stands out from many of them in at least one aspect.

He once played for the West Indies national team. Debuting in ODIs in 2014, Cummins featured in 11 matches, with his last appearance in this format in 2017. He also played 14 Test matches, the most recent of which was six years ago.

As for his T20 career, how does it stack up? He has never played an international T20 match. Even in recognised T20 cricket, he has appeared in just 14 games, 13 of which were in the CPL and Vitality Blast. His CPL appearances, a home tournament for him, date back a decade. His last recognised T20 match was five years ago!

It's not as though he's been playing other formats either. The pacer hasn't played any recognised matches since 2022. It's almost as if the BPL's call has brought him out of "retirement"! With just two wins from six matches and languishing near the bottom of the table, Rajshahi are pinning their hopes on Cummins to turn things around. Perhaps it's the name they're banking on—to get a taste of a different kind of "Cummins"!

There was a time in this very BPL when even the likes of Mahela Jayawardene and Kieron Pollard couldn't make the playing XI. Legends like Chris Gayle, Shahid Afridi, Dwayne Bravo, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shane Watson, David Warner, Brendon McCullum, AB de Villiers, and Kumar Sangakkara once graced the tournament. Now, that feels like a distant memory!

Some other players the audience might want to see in this list could be Shubham Ranjan and Farmanullah. Surely your eyes are still sore from the bowling display by these Dhaka pacers, and they are enough to make any regular cricket-watching eyes ache. Balls landing outside the pitch, long hops, beamers—such "unexpected variations" from a bowler in a recognised T20 tournament are certainly not everyday sights!

In a game, Dhaka Capitals' bowler Shubham displayed this "circus of errors"! And he's not the only one—others have prompted the question: "Who are these players? Where did they come from?"

Still, Farmanullah fares better than Shubham. The Afghan all-rounder, at the very least, can land most of his deliveries on the pitch. Fans need not worry about whether the ball will even reach the batsman! However, Dhaka's struggles mean they must rely on such players to fill their bowling quotas.

It's worth noting that Dhaka also has Mustafizur Rahman. Yet, their dismal bowling performances have made players like Shubham the face of their struggles. Since we've mentioned Shubham, perhaps it's worth introducing him.

Shubham, who once played first-class cricket in India, is now part of the USA cricket scene. He was the player of the series in the last season of the USA Premier League, where he scored 277 runs and took 8 wickets. He's also featured in Major League Cricket.

The USA Premier League is their biggest domestic cricket tournament, and it is of decent quality. In 12 matches there, Shubham scored 151 runs. During these games, he bowled only 1 over. Yet, in the dew-soaked BPL, he's being made to bowl 4 overs per game. Meanwhile, Afghan all-rounder Farmanullah has never played for a team outside Afghanistan.

Several other teams also feature players whose names are hard to find in record books. Take William Bosisto, for instance. He was the Player of the Tournament in the 2012 U19 World Cup and captained Australia. However, before joining Khulna for this year's BPL, he hadn't played any recognised T20 cricket in the last four years. In total, Bosisto has played just 12 T20 matches, 11 of which were in the Big Bash League, where his highest score was an unbeaten 36.

In Dhaka's team, which has lost six consecutive matches, there's Steven Eskinazi—a name that may not be very familiar but belongs to someone with over 100 recognised T20 matches to his name. Dhaka also has Amir Hamza, an Afghan spinner who hasn't played for Afghanistan since 2021. His only other league experience is the Afghanistan Premier League.

This is what the BPL has come to. Forget star cricketers—even names relevant to the global cricketing circuit seem scarce. The downward spiral of the BPL becomes painfully clear when one reminisces about its golden years. What the BPL currently offers is a mix of nostalgia and mediocrity, wrapped in the odd charm of revival stories. While the notion of bringing forgotten players back into the fold has a certain appeal, it does little to strengthen the league's reputation. 

As long as fans are treated to the spectacle of erratic bowling, unfamiliar names, and a declining competitive edge, the question remains: Is the BPL destined to remain a shadow of its former self, or will it take bold steps to recapture its lost glory? For now, the answer seems uncertain, and the tagline "rehabilitation center" grows harder to dismiss.