Chittagong Kings take BPL to court

  Barely five hours to the final, Bangladesh Premier League franchise Chittagong Kings on Wednesday challenged in court the BPL governing body's 'dramatic decision' to deny the Kings from appearing in the semi-finals.

The CEO of the Kings, Samir Quader Chowdhury, filed a petition around 1:30pm at the High Court bench of Mirza Hossain Haider and Khurshid Alam Sarker.
.

The Kings alleged that the BPL governing body had unlawfully dropped them off the semi-finals, paving way for the Barisal Burners.

But lawyers said the ruling would not disrupt Wednesday's final where the Barisal Burners will take on the Dhaka Gladiators at 6pm.

Meanwhile, the judges summoned BPL governing body chairman Gazi Ashraf Hossain Lipu and six others to explain their position on Mar 15.

The BPL authorities had initially declared that Chittagong Kings would go to the semifinals as the fourth-best team ahead of the Burners on the basis of the head-to-head results.

But after a meeting with the technical committee at 2am on Tuesday, the governing body reversed the decision and said the Barisal Burners will instead play the first semi-final.

The owner of the Kings was unhappy with the decision and threatened to move to court.

The drama began to unfold on Monday afternoon when BPL governing body chief Lipu announced that Barisal Burners were left out following the head-to-head results and Chittagong were in the semi-finals, apparently on the basis of a better head-to-head record in the three-way tie on 10 points, which included Dhaka.

But the BPL statement in the wee hours of Tuesday said that Barisal would be the fourth semi-finalists – understandably because their head-to-head record with Chittagong was tied and they had a better net run rate