The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has announced that defending Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) champions Fortune Barishal, owned by Fortune Shoes, have decided to withdraw from the tournament for the next five editions.
Notably, Fortune Barishal had requested the BCB to reschedule the tournament as there was insufficient time to field a competitive squad. However, according to a Cricbuzz report, the request could not be accommodated within the current schedule.
The player draw for the upcoming BPL season has been set for November 17, while the tournament is expected to start around December 19 and will run until December-January. A total of eleven organizations have submitted their Expressions of Interest (EOI) to the BCB for franchise ownership ahead of the next cycle. The submission period closed on October 28.
The list of interested parties includes Champions Sports Limited (proposed team: Dhaka Capitals), Triangle Services Limited (Chattogram team), SQ Sports Enterprise Limited (Chattogram Kings), First SS Enterprise Private Limited (Kumilla Fighters), Togi Sports Limited (Rangpur Riders), Bangla Mark Limited (Noakhali team), Mind Free Limited & Ruposhi Concrete Product Limited (Khulna team), Akashbari Holidays and Resorts (Barishal team), Desh Travels (Rajshahi team), Nabil Group of Industries (Rajshahi team) and JM Sports and Enterprise (Sylhet team).
“We have received these eleven EOIs and now we will follow the criteria that we have, while the next step is that we will assess their financial capacity and the day after tomorrow (October 30) we will call them for individual interviews. The name you mentioned (Fortune Barishal) is not in the EOIs that we received today,” BCB president Aminul Islam told reporters at Navana Tower on Tuesday, as quoted by Cricbuzz.
Speaking of the BPL, the Comilla Victorians remain the most successful team in the tournament’s history, having won the title four times. The Dhaka franchise has lifted the trophy thrice, while Fortune Barishal has claimed the championship twice, in 2024 and 2025. The 2026 BPL season is geared for the December 2025-January 2026 period as the league’s usual February-March schedule coincides with the 2026 ICC T20 World Cup.
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