The sixth edition of Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) finally rolls on to the ground, overcoming the various snags that put the future of the cash-rich and one of the most glamorous tournament of the world in jeopardised state.

The Bangladesh national team’s tight schedule and the country’s general election was the main hindrance for which the BPL was forced to have a delayed start. Originally scheduled to be held in November 2018, the date of the beginning of the tournament was deferred to January 5, 2019. Still there was doubt considering the post-election condition of the country but to the people’s delight everything goes right, paving the way for the BPL’s timely start.

Country’s three venues—Dhaka, Sylhet and Chattogram will host the 35-day long tournament, with Dhaka Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium hosting the first phase from today to January 13. The champions will receive Tk 2 crore as prize money while the runners-up will get Tk 1 crore in this current version of the BPL.

Sylhet International Cricket Stadium will host the tournament from January 15-19 after which BPL will back in Dhaka and will be run from January 21-23 before Chittagong Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury hosts the tournament from January 25-30.

The final phase, play-offs round will be held in Dhaka. The grand final of the tournament is on February 8 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium. Two matches however will be held every day. There will be no cultural programme to mark the inauguration of the tournament like the past seasons.

On the day of the sixth BPL’s inauguration, two matches will be held with both champions Rangpur Riders and runners-up Dhaka Dynamites taking the field.

In the first match of the day, scheduled to begin at 12.30pm, Rangpur will take on Chittagong Vikings. The second match is a day-night affair, starting at 5.20pm, in which mighty Dhaka Dynamites face off Rajshahi Kings.

With the some of the big names of the T20 cricket playing the BPL for the first time, the tournament is all set to take the center stage in the world cricket. For Steven Smith, David Warner and AB De Villiers, it will be the first stint of the BPL while the likes of Chris Gayle, Sunile Narine, Andre Russell, Ian Bell, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik and others are there as well.

Apart from Warner, the rest of the two—Villiers and Smith are yet to land in Dhaka. Villiers’ team Rangpur Riders under the leadership of newly-elected MP Mashrafe Bin Mortaza will however try to retain the title.

Mashrafe also got Chris Gayle, who single-handedly won them the trophy in the last edition, again in his side. Gayle is yet to reach in Dhaka. If he reaches Dhaka today, he will play the match against Chittagong Vikings straightway, said Mashrafe.

“I am yet to get the confirmation when Gayle will land while Villiers will join latter. But we are not worried at all. Our local players have been in cricket and they have recently played T20 series against West Indies. I believe we have the local fire powers who can get us through,” Mashrafe said.

Mushfiqur Rahim who is the captain of Chittagong Vikings knew they have the tough task in hands.

“We know Rangpur Riders are very strong team and they are defending champions. But don’t write off us,” he said.

“We may not so strong on paper but we have some effective T20 players. All we want to start the tournament with good note.”

Dhaka Dynamites should start as favourite against Rajshahi Kings. Dhaka’s all-rounder Andre Russell said they are just looking forward to start the tournament well.

Russell pointed out captain Shakib Al Hasan’s passion as key factor, saying that at times Shakib might look grumpy because he doesn’t think anything apart from victory.

“Shakib is a very good skipper. I have played with him at KKR and Jamaica Tallawahs as well. He plays hard and at times he may get grumpy and that’s how the captains are. We are all professionals and once we make an error in bowl or bat, we play a bad shot or something like, skipper goona react hard. We just have to make sure that we just make it as easy as possible. As a captain, I know he will do his best as well to lead the team.”

Rajshahi Kings coach Lance Klusener insisted on focusing on their strength only. “I am not trying to put too much attention to the other teams. I think our focuses will be on ourselves what we can do.

Obviously, there are some really good teams out there and there is no easy game. But our focuses will be ourselves and what we can do to try and win the games,” he said.