DHAKA: The Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) draft lost much of the excitement after Chittagong Vikings picked Mushfiqur Rahim minutes before the event started on Sunday. Mushfiqur was available after the governing council informed the day before that as an A+ cricketer in the list, any franchise would be able to pick him after Rajshahi Kings opted against retaining him. Mushfiqur’s fee as an A+ player from Bangladesh is between $50,000 and $93,000. But overseas cricketers in the same bracket cost $200,000. Shahid Afridi and Evin Lewis were bought at that price by Comilla Victorians. The first foreign pick in the draft, though, was little-known West Indies allrounder Fabian Allen, who went to Sylhet Sixers for $30,000. The big interest among the local picks was Mohammad Ashraful, who qualified to play in the BPL in August this year after serving a five-year match-fixing-related ban. He was picked up by Chittagong Vikings. Among the local players, wicketkeeper-batsman Jahurul Islam was the draft’s first overall pick and he went to Khulna Titans. Khulna added Lasith Malinga to their roster from category A, apart from legspinner Yasir Shah, Afghanistan left-arm legspinner Zahir Khan and Zimbabwe batsman Brendan Taylor. Rajshahi opted for Soumya Sarkar as their first local pick, and used their first overseas-player quota to pick Sri Lanka’s left-arm seamer Isuru Udana. They also took Netherlands’ Ryan ten Doeschate, Sri Lanka’s Seekugge Prasanna and uncapped England batsman Laurie Evans. South Africa’s Cameron Delport and Sri Lanka’s Dasun Shanaka went to Chittagong, while Ian Bell found a place with Dhaka Dynamites. Apart from Afridi and Lewis, Comilla went for Thisara Perera, a strong performer for Rangpur in the previous season. Rangpur picked Shafiul Islam and Sohag Gazi in the local players’ first round. They retained Ravi Bopara and took Rilee Rossouw and West Indies fast bowler Oshane Thomas. Published in Daily Times, October 29th 2018.