"If you see the other leagues, their local players are the highest paid players" - Rahim © AFP

Mushfiqur Rahim, the Bangladesh wicketkeeper-batsman isn't happy with the disparity in the players' payment in the Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League. Bangladesh's A+ category cricketers receive TK 50 Lakh while the foreign A+ category cricketers get TK 84 Lakh in the BBPL. Meanwhile, Bangladesh's A category cricketers receive TK 25 Lakh which is less than half of what the foreign cricketers in the A category get - TK 56 Lakh - which according to Rahim is a 'discredit' for the Bangladesh cricketers.

"If you see our players, Tamim or Shakib - we perform the whole year consistently but some players who are playing just the T20 format whole year get more wage. It is a bit of discredit for us. If you see the other leagues, their local players are the highest paid players," said Rahim, who will lead Khulna Tigers in the 2019-20 edition of the BBPL.

Doing away with the franchise-based system for this year's edition, the board has taken control of the teams while bringing a few sponsors on board. With a short turnaround time after differences arose with the franchises, the BCB decided to snap ties and re-branded the annual T20 league cricket competition for this season to mark the birth anniversary of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Meanwhile, the Bangladesh's players went on strike and put across a 13-point demand in October, with one of the points being the difference in salary.

Rahim hopes that the issue will be sorted in the next edition of the BPL when the franchises are set to return. "We never get the expected wage and we tried to notify them about it (when we put across the demands)," said Rahim. "They (BCB) also gave us hope. Maybe this BPL was arranged in a hurry and luckily it is happening. I hope everything will be fixed next year. So I am hoping, the demand that we have is reviewed next year.

"And I am not saying that only about top players, the other grades should also be under review. The players who perform consistently the whole year should get higher ranks. Maybe there are only four-five top players who perform well consistently in the year. If I say Shafiul or Taijul, they played outstading last year. They are in B or C grade. So I think they should see these matters. And this will be good for Bangladesh cricket," Rahim said.