Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) President Tamim Iqbal has confirmed that the country’s decorated T20 tournament, the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), will not be held this year. Tamim revealed that BCB suffered a nearly $3.3 million loss from the BPL in the last two years. Tamim said that several franchises failed to follow the tournament rules, including missed payments and bank guarantees, saying that he needs to fix issues before the BPL makes a comeback.

“I have said it a few times that I don’t want to organise the BPL this way. One thing has to be said again. In one tournament, for the last two years, BCB has incurred losses of around 40 Crore Taka,” Tamim Iqbal told reporters at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on Thursday.

“Franchise cricket is supposed to make money for the Bangladesh Cricket Board. Not lose money so there is something going wrong. Until and unless we fix the issues, it is not absolutely important for us to host this event every year,” he said.

“We have started communication with the franchises. The issues involving those who defaulted have to be settled. The issues of missed payments and bank guarantees are being looked at step by step. We will organise the BPL only after taking the BCB to a profit-making position,” he added.

“I am personally communicating with the players. When I was a player, I would also have been disappointed in such a situation. It is true that they will suffer financial losses, but they also understand that the BPL should be a tournament that the BCB and Bangladesh can be proud of,:” said the president.

Over the last few years, the BPL has faced several controversies, including player and team officials’ suspensions over betting violations. Meanwhile, Tamim also confirmed that the BCB is open to having foreign franchises in the BPL.