Chittagong Vikings

Chittagong Vikings is a franchise cricket team based on Chittagong, Bangladesh in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL). The primary home ground of the Vikings is Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium while the team also plays few games at M. A. Aziz Stadium. The team is captained by Bangladeshi opener Tamim Iqbal and coached by Aaqib Javed.

The team was known as Chittagong Kings for the first two edition of the tournament, and owned by SQ Sports Limited. In 2015, the ownership was transferred to DBL Group and renamed to Chittagong Vikings. With worth of $5.30 million, The Vikings are the second most expensive team of Bangladesh Premier League.

History

In 2012, The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) created the cricket tournament Bangladesh Premier League based on the Twenty20 form of the game. For the inaugural tournament held in February of the same year, a list of 6 teams who will be participating in the tournament was finalized. The teams representing 2 different divisions of Bangladesh, including Chittagong, were put up on auction in Radisson Hotels on 19 January. Chittagong Kings was bought by SQ Sports for a price of USD 1.2 million which was the most expensive buy of the six franchises.

Bangladesh Premier League

The Bangladesh Premier League (BPL, also known as BRB BPL) is a professional Bangladeshi Twenty20 cricket league consisting of six teams, which was established by Bangladesh Cricket Board in 2012 and is the highest professional cricket league in Bangladesh. The BPL's 3-week league games runs from the the last week from November to the second week of December and championship game is held on the day before Victory Day. Each team plays 10 league games in format of double Round-robin. Following the conclusion of the league matches, four teams advance to the Semi-finals, a single-elimination tournament culminating in the Championship game, played between the two winners of the semi-finals.

The BPL was formed in 2012 by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), with six original founding club franchises. After first two seasons, all six franchises were suspended by the governing committee for violating the tournament regulations. Due to that, the third edition was indefinitely postponed, which was later held in 2015 with six new franchises. The number of teams will be increased to eight from the fourth edition of the tournament. Today, the BPL has the third highest average attendance among all cricket leagues with respect to the average crowd per match during 2015 season. In 2016, BPL was revealed as the second most followed cricket league in the world, second to IPL. The brand valuation of BPL is estimated around $800 million.

Premier League

The Premier League is an English professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the English football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Football League. Welsh clubs that compete in the English football league system can also qualify.

The Premier League is a corporation in which the 20 member clubs act as shareholders. Seasons run from August to May. Teams play 38 matches each (playing each team in the league twice, home and away), totalling 380 matches in the season. Most games are played on Saturday and Sunday afternoons; others during weekday evenings. It is currently sponsored by Barclays Bank and thus officially known as the Barclays Premier League and is colloquially known as the Premiership. Outside the UK it is commonly referred to as the English Premier League (EPL).

The competition formed as the FA Premier League on 20 February 1992 following the decision of clubs in the Football League First Division to break away from the Football League, which was originally founded in 1888, and take advantage of a lucrative television rights deal. The deal was worth £1 billion a year domestically as of 2013–14, with BSkyB and BT Group securing the domestic rights to broadcast 116 and 38 games respectively. The league generates €2.2 billion per year in domestic and international television rights. In 2014/15, teams were apportioned revenues of £1.6 billion.

Comilla Victorians

The Comilla Victorians are a professional Bangladeshi Twenty20 cricket team based in Comilla, Chittagong Division. The Victorians are members of Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), a professional cricket league in Bangladesh. The Victorians are the latest inclusion to the tournament.

The Victorians were established in 2015, when Nafisa Kamal, who was then the co-owner of the Sylhet Royals, announced plans to establish a franchise in Comilla. After suspension of the Royals by the Tournament Governing Board, Kamal entered a five years ownership agreement for US$27.50 million. The Victorians are widely considered one of the strongest team in Bangladesh Premier League.

The Victorians made their first appearance during BPL III, and ended as the champions of the season. The Victorians are currently are one of only two teams to win the championship during it's first appearance, first was Dhaka Gladiators in BPL I. The team is reputed to have a balanced team with a strong batting and bowling unit. The Victorians are currently coached by Mohammad Salauddin. Mashrafe Mortaza is the captain of the team, and is considered "the face of the franchise". The team is owned by Nafisa Kamal and is valued at US$27.50 million, making the Victorians the most valuable franchise in the league.

Dhaka Dynamites

Dhaka Dynamites is a professional men's cricket team based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The team competes in Bangladeshi Twenty20 cricket competition Bangladesh Premier League. Their home ground is Shere Bangla National Stadium. The team's official colors are blue and yellow. The team was originally founded as Dhaka Gladiators in 2012 and participated during the first two edition of the tournament. In 2015, the franchise ownership was transferred and team was renamed to Dynamites. The team is currently owned by Beximco Group.

The Dynamites are coached by South African batsman Mickey Arthur, and lead by Kumar Sangakkara. Bangladeshi player Nasir Hossain was selected as the icon player of the team.

History

Franchise history

Dhaka Dynamites, was originally founded in 2012 as Dhaka Gladiators. The Gladiators were one of the six founding members of Bangladesh Premier League. The team was purchased by Europa Group for $5.05 million. For the first two seasons, Mashrafe Mortaza lead the team while Ian Pont was the head coach of the team. Dhaka Gladiators was indefinitely suspended by the Bangladesh Cricket Board after it's involvement in match fixing scandal. In 2015, The team was sold to Beximco and renamed to Dhaka Dynamites.