The Bangladesh Premier League 2016, also known as BPL Season 4 and AKS BPL 2016 (for sponsorship reasons) was the fourth season of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), the top level professional Twenty20 cricket franchise league in Bangladesh. The competition was organised by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and featured seven teams.[1] The season originally began on 4 November 2016 and ended on 9 December 2016.[2] However, after the first four matches of the tournament were abandoned due to rain and with more rain forecast, the league opted to restart on 8 November and to replay all of the opening six matches.[2][3][4]
Two new teams, Khulna Titans and Rajshahi Kings played in the competition with new ownership after the original franchises were not allowed to enter the 2015 competition, while the Sylhet Super Stars franchise was excluded from the competition.[1][5] The BCB originally claimed that Sylhet had breached franchisee agreements or not paid bank guarantees, but on 21 September clarified that the franchise had been excluded for "disciplinary reasons".[5]Comilla Victorians were the defending champions[6] but were eliminated in the group stage. In the championship game, Dhaka Dynamites defeated Rajshahi Kings to win their third title.[7]
Player draft
The 2016 BPL draft was held on 30 September.[1][8] Prior to the draft, the seven clubs signed 38 foreign players to contracts and each existing franchise was able to retain two home-grown players from the 2015 season.[9] A total 301 players participated in the draft, including 133 local and 168 foreign players. 85 players were selected in the draft.[10]
A total of 46 matches, including the final, were played at two venues in Chittagong and Dhaka. The Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong hosted eleven (11) matches in the middle block of games, with the majority of matches (35), including all playoff matches and the final being held at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka. 25,000 people attended the final.
A total of 46 matches were played in the tournament. During the round-robin group stage each team played 12 matches, two against each other team taking part in the tournament. In total 42 matches were played in the group stage, with the top four teams progressing to the playoff stage of the tournament where three playoff matches and the final were played, the final taking place on 9 December at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka.
Group stage matches were played in three blocks. The first and third blocks took place in Dhaka, with the middle block of 10 matches taking place in Chittagong. Two matches were played on each day of the group stage part of the tournament. The first four matches of the tournament were washed out after heavy rain,[2] and the two matches scheduled to take place on 6 November were postponed.[3] The tournament was restarted on 8 November with the first six fixtures rescheduled[3] and the matches from the opening day of fixtures replayed, with the points table reset.[4]
Rain-affected fixtures
The following six matches were all affected by rain, with only the first one technically starting with a toss taking place. All of the results were removed from the points table and rescheduled for later in the tournament.[4]
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