Shoriful tops D Three Trophy auction, joining Citizens for 23 million points
The player auction for the Bangladesh Cricket Board's new franchise competition, Domestic Three or the D Three Trophy, was held on Monday. The tournament will begin in December, starting with a short T20 edition.
Left-arm pacer Shoriful Islam of the national team topped the auction among local cricketers, selling for 23 million points. He was signed by Citizens Bank (Citizen Group).
Two more players passed the 20 million point mark. Walton signed pacer Taskin Ahmed for 21 million points, while Fortune signed opener Tanzid Hasan Tamim for exactly 20 million points.
Bluestar signed pacer Hasan Mahmud for 19.5 million points, and batter Saif Hasan also found a team at the same price. Citizens signed wicketkeeper-batter Jaker Ali Anik for 17 million points.
Seven Rings Cement bought pacer Syed Khaled Ahmed for 15 million points. At an equal 15.5 million points, Fortune signed Najmul Hossain Shanto and Walton signed Litton Kumar Das.
In this auction, squads were built through set points instead of direct money. According to the organisers, the points system was introduced to remove financial disparity between teams and ensure squads of a comparable standard for everyone.
Six corporate franchises are taking part in the tournament — Acme, Fortune, Walton, Seven Rings Cement, Citizens Bank and Bluestar. A total of 281 cricketers were listed for the tournament.
Six star cricketers from the list were signed in advance as icons, and the auction was held for the remaining 275. The icons were Nurul Hasan Sohan at Bluestar, Tawhid Hridoy at Fortune, Mosaddek Hossain Saikat at Acme, Mohammad Naim Sheikh at Citizens Bank, Mushfiqur Rahim at Seven Rings Cement and Mehidy Hasan Miraz at Walton.
