BPL must address payment issues to improve global standing, says Lisa Sthalekar

Former Australian cricketer Lisa Sthalekar has said that the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) must improve its overall standards if it hopes to attract and retain top overseas players. Her comments come in the wake of a recent assessment by the World Cricketers’ Association, which evaluated major domestic T20 leagues using metrics developed in consultation with players, agents, and players’ associations.

Under the study’s criteria, major domestic leagues were defined as tournaments featuring five or more current players from ICC Full Member nations as overseas participants. The BPL finished at the bottom of the rankings.

Sthalekar urged the newly formed Cricket Welfare Association of Bangladesh to work closely with the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) to address longstanding issues surrounding the tournament. The BPL has faced repeated criticism in recent years over delayed or unpaid player salaries and allegations of match-fixing.

“What the World Cricketers’ Association does, and we have it on our website, is almost a traffic-light system of all the T20 leagues around the world. It’s to help players, administrators and agents understand what the issues have been and what the successful aspects of each T20 league are. Obviously, if you look at the BPL, its traffic light doesn’t have a lot of green, unfortunately. Speaking to Mithun (president of the CWAB), I said this is an opportunity for them as a new organisation and executive committee to work with the Bangladesh Cricket Board to ensure that overseas players want to come here and play, and that they can potentially move into the amber and green categories,” said Sthalekar as quoted by Cricbuzz.

“And for it to be a tournament that people want to travel to and be part of because you’ve got some wonderful facilities and some wonderful cricketers. Obviously, that’s shown by how Bangladesh have been able to perform in recent times. So hopefully, the two organisations can work together and ensure that the BPL is as strong and prosperous as it can be,” she added.

Sthalekar further stated that resolving payment-related disputes must be a top priority if the BPL is to improve its standing among the world’s leading T20 competitions. She believes the CWAB can play a significant role in addressing these concerns.

“I think for professional cricketers, it’s their job. All of you have jobs. You do your job, and you expect to be paid. I don’t think it makes a difference. A professional cricketer, if they’ve gone out and played cricket and done their job, should be paid for it. And if the system and structure have put frameworks and contracts in place, then they should be honoured. But that’s all domestic cricket, and that’s up to the players’ association here on the ground to work through,” said Sthalekar.

“What the World Cricketers’ Association tends to do is assist and help when we go into ICC events. We tend to operate at that next level. Our dealings are with the ICC; they’re not necessarily with the Bangladesh Cricket Board or Cricket Australia. That’s for the individual players’ association in each country. However, Mithun will be coming to London, where we have a board meeting. It’ll be exciting for him to be part of it, and no doubt he’ll learn a lot more about players’ associations and the programmes we run across the world,” she added.