BPL to go on without fans in the stadium and DRS

Onecricket

The Bangladesh Premier League’s eighth edition will not have fans watching the matches in the stadium as the Governing Council of the BPL has decided to abide by the orders of the Bangladesh Government to curb the spread of Omicron. Hence all the matches will be played behind closed doors. 

"There will be no fans allowed inside the stadium during the upcoming BPL. These are the directives given by the government and we are following them," BPL governing council secretary Ismail Haider Mallick was quoted as saying Cricbuzz. 

Mallick also confirmed that it would be the first time since the introduction of DRS in the league, it would not be used. This is a decision that has been taken due to the ban on travel as imposed by many countries across the globe due to rising cases of Omicron variant of Covid-19. 

''Hawk-Eye Company is the sole provider of DRS in the world. No one wants to come because of Omicron. We cannot use the DRS in BPL due to Covid situation. Now they (technicians) can't fly. Their two teams are now in two countries, they will not be able to come to Bangladesh in this situation from there,'' said Mallick. 

The impact of the DRS not being available, especially because TV and the digital audience will be the only sources of revenue and they would have wanted DRS for fairness in competition would be huge. Mallick agreed to it as well.

“It's true that the tournament might lose some of its appeal without DRS, but there is nothing to do. We wanted full capacity of crowds in BPL. We also got permission from the government but everything changed because of Omicron,” he said. 

The BPL 2022 would begin from January 21 and will be played across three venues of Sher-E-Bangla Stadium in Dhaka, Zahur Ahmed Chowdhary Stadium in Chattogram and the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium in Sylhet. The Playoffs will be played in Dhaka with the final also being played at the same venue on February 18.

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