BPL-3: Who will be the Player of the Tournament?
The third season of the BRB Cables Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) is almost done to completion. The stage is set for the final, which is scheduled to be held on December 15 between Comilla Victorians and Barisal Bulls; and then the biggest domestic cricketing extravaganza of the country will be signed of for this time.
Despite being marred with some chaos, confusion and by some parochial approach, one must say this year’s BPL was more than a successful one, as far as the quality of cricket is concerned. Perhaps most of the matches didn’t see run-rains, what spectators want most in this shortest format of the game. Still this season of BPL produced a number of nail biting, heart compounding, nerve wracking games; for which the BPL-3 will be remembered forever after.
And now as the twilight of the season has arrived, the biggest question to be circling around is : who will be the Player of the Tournament? In the previous two seasons, Shakib Al Hasan well deservingly was the superior most player and accordingly bagged the award. But this time around, he shouldn’t be even on our shortlist. Yes, we are going to make a shortlist enlisting the probable candidates to win the Player of the Tournament of BPL-3 and I don’t know whether or not you will be surprised, that you should not be if you carefully followed the tournament throughout, that there is no icon cricketer or any so-called larger-than-life foreign superstar whom we believe to be well enough to win the title. Our nominees have been plain and simple by their image but still at the peak of their plausible best application. Here they are…
Abu Haider Rony (Comilla Victorians) : Yes, he is the find of the BPL-3. One of the most important reasons for arranging a tournament like BPL is to unearth hidden talents from one’s own locality; and among our local youngsters, Rony attracted the highest number of eyes. He is an energetic lefty, at the peak of his teenage, who can roar like a lion, can fly like a bird, can smile like any of the Khans of Bollywood and most importantly, has a lethal cocktail of yorkers, bouncers and cutters mixed up with sheer pace at his stock. He has taken 21 wickets from 11 matches with an averege of 13.38 and economy rate of 6.74, he has led his team to the final and now is just one more win away to climb to the cloud nine.
Ashar Zaidi (Comilla Victorians) : Initially he was being considered as just another Pakistani. Maybe Pakistan-born English but the word Pakistan seemed to be the key to many. Some may think even the worst players of Pakistan can attract the BPL franchises for some unknown, strange reasons. That may be true otherwise how come the players like Kamran Akmal or Sohail Khan got a team in the BPL? But fortunately, Zaidi was a stand-out exception. The last-minute addition of Komola Sundori’s side is a senior citizen of his mid thirtees, has vast experience of playing in county cricket and even for Gazi Tankers as well in Bangladesh’s domestic circuit. It is heard that the Pakistani himself requested the Comilla owners to take him in the team and the rest is history. He didn’t play in Comilla’s campaign opener but since the second one, he has featured in all ten matches Comilla played. And in those 10 appearances, he scalped as many as 16 wickets at an average of 9.43 and economy of 4.57. He has also scored 199 runs at 66.33, coming to bat at late middle order and remained unbeaten on four occasions out of seven. This man perhaps is the Shakib Al Hasan of this year’s BPL.
Kevon Cooper (Barisal Bulls) : Players like Chris Gayle and Andre Russell have already left the BPL for the Big Bash League (BBL). But Cooper still is here, which definitely will emerge as a big surprise to many after seeing his extraordinary performance with the ball in the BPL. But whether or not he finds a team in BBL and flies for down under should not be big concern for us, as long as we get to see him performing in the most exciting T20 tournament of the world. Moreover it might be fortunate for the player himself as well to stay in the country so that he could receive the Player of the Tournament in person. The West Indian recruit of the Bulls has played only 8 matches to gain 20 wickets. Maybe it’s not enough to determine how diminishing he has been in the tournament. So his average, economy and strike rates are as follow : 8.70, 5.61 and 9.3.
All three players shortlisted on the contender-list to win the Player of the Tournament will get another chance to showcase their performance in front of us, as both of their respective teams has marched into the final. So let’s not make a mind yet. You never know what they are going to do on the biggest stage of them all to turn the table around!
