2012 Bangladesh Premier League

The 2012 Bangladesh Premier League, also known as Destiny-Boishakhi BPL 2012, was the inaugural season of the Bangladesh Premier League established by the Bangladesh Cricket Board. The competition featured six franchises and used a tournament format with a double round robin group stage followed by two semi-finals and a final. The season began on 9 February with the final played on 29 February. The competition was won by Dhaka Gladiators.
Matches were held in Dhaka and Chittagong. The six franchises represented Dhaka, Barisal, Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi and Sylhet divisions. The franchise auction was held on 10 January and the player auction took place on 18 and 19 January.

Opening ceremony

The President of Bangladesh Zillur Rahman launched the tournament during an opening ceremony held at the Sher-e-Bangla Cricket Stadium in Dhaka on 9 February 2012. The ceremony featured dancers, actors and singers and ended with fireworks and a laser lighting display.

Venues

A total of 33 matches, including the semi-finals and final, were held at two venues in Chittagong and Dhaka. The Bir Shreshtho Flight Lieutenant Matiur Rahman Cricket Stadium in Chittagong hosted eight matches, with the majority of matches, including all playoff matches and the final, being held at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur, Dhaka.

Controversies

Match fixing

Before the tournament started, Mashrafe Mortaza, one of Bangladesh's leading fast bowlers and the captain of Dhaka Gladiators, reported a spot-fixing approach by a fellow cricketer. The BPL was informed of the approach.

Overdue payments

Players were supposed to be paid in instalments during the tournament, with 25% of each player's wages due before the start of the tournament, 50% during the tournament, and the remainder at the end. A series of financial irregularities meant that many overseas players only received the first 25% well after the tournament ended. Most eventually received their payments, although players from Pakistan were still awaiting theirs in April 2012.

Player auction

Players were assigned to franchises at a player auction, held in Dhaka on 19 January 2012. Each franchise was allowed to sign 18 players, including up to eight non-Bangladeshi players. A maximum of five overseas players could have been played in each matches.

Format

Each franchise played ten matches in the group stage of the competition, playing twice against every other team. The top four teams qualified for the semi-final stage.
The tournament rules stated that if a match ended with the scores tied that a super over would be used to decide the match. If more than one team ended the group stage of the competition on the same number of points the regulations said that the teams would be ranked using the criteria:

Higher number of wins
If still equal, net run rate
If still equal, lower bowling strike rate

Group stage

During the group stage of the tournament Duronto Rajshahi won seven of their ten matches and finished top of the league table with Khulna Royal Bengals, who won six matches, finishing second. Three teams, Barisal Burners, Chittagong Kings and Dhaka Gladiators, all finished with five wins and ten points. The tournament regulations stated that if teams finished level on points and had each won the same number of matches, that net run rate would be used to decide the rankings for teams. After some confusion, Dhaka Gladiators were placed third in the group stage followed by Barisal Burners, with Chittagoing Kings eliminated from the competition.
Note: The top four teams advanced to the semi-finals.

Group stage fixtures

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Knockout stage

The organisers of the tournament caused some controversy after the broadcasters awarded the final semifinal spot on air to the Barisal Burners based on their superior net run rate over the Chittagong Kings, both of which were tied on the same number of points with only one of the two to progress to the next round. The following day officials from the Bangladesh Premier League confirmed that Chittagong Kings would progress to the next round, in place of the Burners, due to a better head-to-head record. Later that day the officials retracted their initial decision and replaced the Kings with the Burners as the 4th placed team based on their superior net run rate.

Semi-finals

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