I always had a belief we would play again together: Mahmudullah © Getty
The Bangladesh Cricket Board backed Dhaka team has roped in Tamim Iqbal, Mahmudullah and Mashrafe bin Mortaza for the forthcoming Bangabandhu BPL 2022.

The three cricketers were placed in the highest A category but were not picked as direct signing until this morning.

The overnight change in Dhaka franchise's ownership paved way for Mahmudullah as he turned out to be the direct signing of the team. BCB decided to change the initial bidder for Dhaka - Rupa Fabrics Limited and Marn Steel Limited (Consortium) - following their failure to pay bank guarantee of BDT Five Crore.

''We still have some offers in our hand for Dhaka franchise after we decided not to continue with the initial bidder as they failed to fulfil all our requirements on time. Now we are just trying to figure out the financial strength of the interested parties as we had some bad experiences in the past regarding payment of franchises and don't want to make similar mistake,'' BPL governing council member secretary Ismail Haider had told Cricbuzz on Monday after the players draft that took place in a hotel in Dhaka.

BCB selector Habibul Bashar and Mahmudullah were bidding for Dhaka in the draft and the national T20 skipper included Tamim and Mortaza within the first three calls. The move will mark the participation of the senior trio in a team for the first time in BPL history.

''I always had a belief we would play again together. I am happy to see that we will play together again,'' Mahmudullah said. ''Tamim is also with us and we have a lot of experienced players in our team. So I hope if we can execute it in the field, we have the chance to do well in BPL."

Tamim added that he is looking forward to play with Mashrafee and Mahmudullah. "Really it is fantastic to see all three in one team and that's why our team has been strong. And it will be a lot of fun in the dressing room if the three of us are together.

''I don't want to say anything about captaincy because Riyad (Mahmudullah) Vai is still holding T20 team captaincy and he deserves the leadership role. Our job is to support him,'' Tamim added.

Cumilla Victorians, who are back in the tournament after missing out the last edition, went for Mustafizur Rahman, Faf du Plessis, Sunil Narine and Moeen Ali as their direct signings, apart from picking Liton Das and Oshane Thomas, among others.

Cumilla coach Mohammad Salahuddin, who had the chance to call a senior as they were the first one to make a call in the draft, said that he is looking forward to give some exposure to younger players.

''It's true we could have picked Tamim or Mashrafee as we were the first caller in the draft but we had other plans and we want to provide exposure to some youngster,'' said Salahuddin

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Dhaka: Mahmudullah, Tamim Iqbal, Rubel Hossain, Mashrafe Mortaza, Mohammad Shahzad, Mohammad Naim, Arafat Sunny, Imranuzzaman, Shafiul Islam, Jahurul Islam, Shamsur Rahman, Ebadat Hossain,

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